


Rewrite the Stars

by FlightFright



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A rewrite for the disaster that was the last two seasons of Voltron, FlightFright is back on some bullshit, Gen, I promised my friend I'd write a better ending so here we mcfrickin are, I think not Dreamworks, No hard feelings but I think we both know what's up, Season 7 and 8 rewrite, They nerfed my girl Allura wtf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2019-09-23 03:04:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 60,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17072291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightFright/pseuds/FlightFright
Summary: Lance knows what he wants, but not what he needs.Allura has complicated feelings for somebody who wronged her, but for some reason she feels there is more to his story than he was able to tell.Pidge is confident in who she has become, and now that she's finally home it feels like she's being smothered.Hunk feels like they should be doing more to find and prepare the new generation of Paladins, even if the others don't see things the way he does.Keith longs to help bring the Galra Empire back together, but he can't do it by himself.Shiro must face the life he left behind before he left for Kerberos, and it scares the living hell out of him.





	1. Know Your Enemy, Prologue

It had only been a few weeks after Lance and the others had become Paladins that he made a promise to himself.

This in itself wasn’t such a big deal, even if he did have a horrible track record for remembering things he needed to do or favors for his friends and family. The aspect that separated this vow from the rest of them was that for the next several years, it was the main force that pushed him to keep going, the extra energy that kept the spring in his step. During the times that he sniffled miserably to himself as he yanked his armor on and raced to his lion during an attack, he remembered his promise and carried on. On his team’s off days when he could barely get out of bed, he would think of his Mama and Papa back in Cuba, and his brothers and sisters and cousins and his _abuelita._ Then, he would get his ass up and go find something to do.

It didn’t matter what it would take for him to get back home, he _would_ make it happen. Even if it took the rest of his life, even if he had to bring down the entire Galra Empire with his bare hands, he and his friends would be returning to Earth.

Lance tried to not think too much about what he would find once they did just that. How much time had passed? Was his _abuelita_ still alive? Were _any_ of them alive?

Nope. Don’t think about that. Nope, nope, nope.

 _“Hey, guys,”_ Hunk’s voice came in through Lance’s helmet comm. _“Pidge finished the calculations for how long it’ll take us to get to Earth as Voltron.”_

Lance silently thanked God for the existence of Hunk Garrett. “Is it a few more days? Please tell us we’ll be there by, like, the day after tomorrow. Whatever ‘days’ mean in the empty, endless void of space-”

_“Uhhh… no. It’ll be like a month.”_

Slowly, Lance slid down in his seat and hit his helmet repeatedly against the headrest.

 _“The only reason it isn’t six more months is because of those handy wings you and Keith formed,”_ Pidge chimed in. _“Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.”_

Oh, yeah. He hadn’t given the wings that much thought… well, he didn’t really want to. The split-second bond formed between him and Keith as they gave Voltron its wings was… _man._ There weren’t words for what it felt like. If he had to put a description to it, he supposed that it kind of resembled two souls momentarily combining into one. Sure, he had felt something like that when he had formed weapons with other teammates, but this was _way_ different. It had been intense in ways that left him dazed and with dreams that burned through his mind like fire.

Then again, Keith was kind of like that. Lance figured any kind of wacky astral spirit-bonding with the guy was bound to be a little… interesting.

 _“Can’t you guys keep it down? I just managed to fall asleep,”_ a familiar, cranky voice growled through the comm, rough from tiredness.

 _“You’ve been sleeping for the last fifteen vargas, Keith. I keep track of everybody’s sleeping schedule. If you fall asleep again within the next ten hours I can and will get Coran to wake you up,”_ Hunk said matter-of-factly.

_“Ugh.”_

“Rise and shine, Mullet Man, it’s another beautiful day!” Lance sang.

Keith took the bait like a hungry stray cat. _“Lance, I am_ this _close-!”_

“Dang, Keithy, you always make a boy blush.”

It was his own face that felt a little warm, but it was always fun poking fun at Keith. The guy was all bark and no bite, and the times they snarked at each other were beloved memories of his. Lance _existed_ to be petty.

 _“… and you shouldn’t be talking about rising and shining! The first three months after we became Paladins you cried almost every day because you didn’t get to sleep in,”_ Keith finished with a huff.

Lance sighed, knowing there was _no_ way in hell Keith was going to find out the real reason why he cried so much back then. “You got me there.”

_“Uh-huh.”_

He was about to remark on the fact Keith wasn’t that great of a morning person, either, but a sharp yelp of pain made him jump in alarm.

“Uh, Pidge? Was that you?” Lance asked, concerned.

_“Yeah. Um. I’m fine; just electrocuted myself on a, uh. Circuit thing.”_

Now he was suspicious. Pidge was just as good with words as she was with her technology. Something was definitely up.

“You want me to come over there?” he asked, already unbuckling himself. “I’ll bring my first aid kit.”

 _“No, I’m fine!”_ Her voice cracked.

 _“Pidge? What’s going on?”_ It was Shiro’s voice this time, stern but worried.

“Dude, I grew up with sisters. I know when girls are lying,” Lance told Pidge firmly. He pulled out one of the cubbies underneath the controls and grabbed his first aid kit.

 _“Piss off! I’m fi-ne!”_ Pidge’s protests were cut off with another gasp of discomfort. The doors slid open, and Lance carefully picked his way through the Red Lion’s torso, the available space greatly reduced by the countless transformations of the mech’s inner workings so that it could function as the right hand of Voltron. Not for the first time, Lance was grateful he was skinny, otherwise there was no way he’d be able to squeeze through the mess of machinery.

A quick leap over a gap in the Black Lion’s torso, another three-minute expedition through a crap-ton of gears and things he had no name for through the Green Lion, and stubbing his toe led him to the doors to the cockpit. Lance knocked.

“Go away!”

“Nope.”

“Ugh! I just… oh, _shit.”_

“Pidge?”

“… Lance, I think I’m dying!”

He was able to push the doors open and hurry over to the distraught Green Paladin. Pidge sat on the floor, her armor off and her bodysuit unzipped so she was just in her camisole and boxer shorts. She was staring in horror at her crotch, and as Lance crouched down next to her he quickly realized why.

Pidge was literally sitting in a pool of her own blood.

Lance did a few quick calculations, noting she wasn’t outwardly injured (as far as he could tell) and adding in a few memories of his his sisters and female friends of his. He looked to the roof of the cockpit, a habit picked up from his Catholic mother when she would look to the Lord for answers whenever he and his siblings did something stupid.

She had done that quite often.

“Pidge,” he said calmly. “Are you having cramps in your abdominal region right now? Possibly experiencing mood swings and sugar cravings? Have you noticed that your back hurts much more than it usually would sitting in a chair for several hours at a time?”

Pidge slowly turned to look up at him with wide eyes. “How… how did you know?”

 _“Pidge.”_ He brought a hand to the bridge of his nose and pinched it. “You’ve started your period.”

“My…” Wide brown eyes grew even wider. “No way. No frickin’ way.”

“Yep.”

Pidge’s mouth opened and closed several times before she winced, face screwing up in agony. It lasted for several seconds before the cramp released, and she slumped back against the pilot’s chair while gasping for breath. The metallic scent of blood registered in Lance’s head, something he had become very used to over the years, but he still had to lean away a little to keep his head clear.

Lance cringed in sympathy when another wave of pain wracked Pidge’s body, breaking him out of his thoughts. Busting out his first aid kit, he rooted around before finding the painkillers and handing them over to Pidge, who downed them like they were the only thing that would keep her alive.

He picked up his helmet. “Okay guys, we’re in the clear.”

 _“Pidge! Are you okay?”_ Hunk wailed.

 _“Wait, what just happened?”_ Keith mumbled, still sounding half asleep. Shiro said something Lance couldn’t make out over Romelle and Allura badgering him with questions. Then Kosmo decided that he needed to contribute to the conversation as well and started howling loud enough to make Lance’s ears ring.

He set his helmet down and fell back against the pilot’s chair with Pidge, groaning. The girl grunted in agreement, her brow beading with sweat as she accepted the towel Lance handed her. He made a mental note to never make period jokes again.

“Are you gonna be okay?”

Pidge turned to look at him with watery eyes before bursting into tears. “How come you’re always so nice? It’s making me cry!”

Lance suddenly had an armful of bawling paladin. He winced, nodding to himself as he patted her back, thanking all of his sisters and friends over the years that had given him experience with the… messier parts of female stuff.

Man, the rest of this trip was gonna _suck._

 


	2. Know Your Enemy, Part 1

They couldn’t afford to stop, even for Pidge, which made Hunk feel guilty as hell. He remembered when his sister started her period, and it was _awful._ She had woken up with her bedsheets stained dark red, in pain and with no idea what was going on until she calmed down enough to put the pieces together. If the muffled swearing and occasional bouts of crying was any indication, Pidge had it even worse than his sister did. It hurt to know that his favorite partner-in-crime was suffering.

He sighed, but apparently there was no rest for the wicked as Allura and Romelle all but busted down the doors to the cockpit.

“We tried getting information out of Lance, but he just insisted that it wasn’t his place to tell, so we went to Pidge but she was sleeping and we didn’t want to wake her, so…” Allura sighed, wringing her hands nervously.

“Is it a human thing?” Romelle asked, violet eyes wide with concern and curiosity.

“Uh, yeah, it’s a human thing,” Hunk said with a chuckle. He had liked Romelle right from the start- brave, cheerful, smart, and _cautious._ Finally, somebody with an ounce of sense in their body! Hurray!

“It happens to human females as they grow up. Well, anybody with a uterus, actually. Basically, there are a bunch of little eggs in a human uterus, and when they get fertilized by male, uh… when they get fertilized by sperm, _that_ turns into a baby. Once a month, an egg will travel down to a bigger part of the uterus or whatever, and the body will build up tissues around it that are full of nutrients and minerals and pretty much everything you need to grow another human. But if the egg _isn’t_ fertilized, then the body expels all of that by the uterus contracting. The pelvis bones actually help as well by moving in and out, which causes back pain. So yeah, a lot of blood and stuff comes shooting out where the sun don’t shine, and from what I’ve heard and seen it hurts. A _lot.”_

There was a long, _long_ moment of silence, with Romelle and Allura staring down at him with expressions of complete horror.

Hunk clapped his hands together. “So yeah. Now you know a little more about us humans.”

“Blood comes out…” Romelle mumbled, swaying on her feet. “Oh…”

Allura swallowed, eyes wide. “The strength of human females must truly be legendary!”

“Heck yeah it is!” Hunk laughed. The two Alteans nodded, still looking a little pale but recovering enough to not give off the impression that they were about to fall over.

“Should we… bring Pidge sustenance? It does sound like a taxing ordeal,” Romelle suggested to Allura, wringing her hands.

“Say no more.” Hunk retrieved a package from beside his chair and handed it to her. “I was gonna bring this to her later, but since you guys volunteered…”

Romelle and Allura’s faces brightened, and Allura eagerly took the box from him and scooted out the doors, Romelle right on her heels. “Goodbye, Hunk!”

“Bye, guys!”

Hunk watched them go with a smile before turning back to the screen he had before him. Before him was a list of ideas he had came up with in regard to finding new Paladins of Voltron; not that he or any other members of the team were going to quit anytime soon because of the war.

No, he was more focused on what would happen _after._

There would always be a threat to the universe, no matter how big or small, and as the current defenders of, like, _everything,_ it was up to them to try and protect as many as people as they could. So, as far as he was concerned, it was going to be his job to find new Paladins if… _when_ they won even though Keith made it pretty clear that wasn’t on his agenda anytime soon, but whatever. Hunk knew what had to be done and he wasn’t afraid to do it.

So far he was a pretty big fan of turning the Lions over to the Olkari and letting them decide who the new worthy pilots would be. Maybe it was just because it took the pressure of him and his friends, but he was all about letting an ancient, accomplished alien race choose new Paladins.

A loud beeping from his controls made him jolt out of his thoughts. Hunk stared down at the screen that had popped up, not recognizing what it was at first out of sheer disbelief.

 _“That looks like… I recognize these constellations! This is Earth’s galactic neighborhood!”_ Pidge cried. _“It’s the Milky Way!”_

Hunk stared at the massive galaxy before them, hardly able to believe his eyes.

He had seen the giant sky whales of Li’Taah soaring through the violet heavens, felt the life force of a Balmera as it surged back from the brink of death. The forests of Olkari had choked him up with their endless green beauty, and working alongside the Galra for the first time, even just for a while, had made him feel like anything was possible.

But out of everything he had seen during their crazy journey around the universe, he was certain that he had never seen something so beautiful as his own home.

“Home…” he whispered.

“We made it,” Lance agreed reverently, sounding sleep-deprived and barely functional as Hunk felt. He barely heard the other members of the team cheering in joy before they were moving again in a direct beeline for planet earth.

<> 

_“… most of the citizens have been captured. Those who remain are making our last stand. If you get this message, please get word to Voltron. We need help!”_

“It’s not a reply. It’s a distress signal,” was all Hunk managed to say. He felt hot and cold at the same time as all the blood in his body began rushing around to where it was not supposed to go, making him feel dizzy and nauseous with terror.

Pidge had been trying to send out a message to her dad as they drew closer to Earth. They expected a relieved call back, a few questions about how they were holding up and their ETA.

What they did not account for, however, were the Galra.

It had only felt like a few months since they had been working together under Lotor’s rule. But the Emperor was gone now, and the Galra Empire had fallen apart in every way possible.

Hunk swallowed down the lump in his throat at the thought of the guy he had once nearly called his friend.

 _“Dad,”_ Pidge croaked.

Everything started moving very, very quickly. He barely had time to enjoy all of Neptune’s deep blue glory as they blazed right by it and barreled right through one of its thin rings.

_“Dad! Please respond! Voltron is coming, just hold on!”_

“Are we too late?” Hunk swallowed back bile. When nobody said anything in response to his question, he felt his stomach drop from where it had sunken to in his feet to rise back up and then threaten to come right out of his mouth.

 _“Katie? Katie! Is that you?”_ A voice crackled through Hunk’s comm, with Pidge’s radio having automatically linked all of their communication systems when the broadcast came through. A surge of hope made him exhale deeply.

 _“Dad! It’s me! I’m here!”_ Pidge shouted, nearly crying with relief.

_“Katie, I’m so glad to hear your voice. Where are you?”_

_“We’re in the Solar System, we’re heading to Earth now!”_

_“Wait!”_ Samuel Holt shouted. _“You must stop!”_

 _“What? Say that again?”_ Keith asked in confusion.

_“Stop. Sendak has evaded the planet. He’s taken over Earth. If he finds out that Voltron is here he’ll threaten the people of Earth in exchange for the Lions.”_

Hunk felt ice water run down his spine. His family… his family was in danger. Oh, _God,_ what if they were dead?

Or, even worse, in a Galra prison? No, no, no-

“Reverse thrusters!” Keith ordered.

 _No!_ Hunk’s first instinct was to keep going, to charge down to Earth and kick every purple furry ass that stood in his way and save his family, save all of their families, but in a nanosecond he regained his composure. Leaping into battle without planning anything would just get them all killed and the Lions taken into Galran custody.

“Copy that. Hold tight!” he told Keith. Pulling back on his shift, he kicked Voltron back, feet first, into the hardest brake of his life. Not for the first time, Hunk was extremely grateful for the incredible Altean technology that kept his organs from flying out of his body as they slowed down from about the speed of light to a dead halt in just a few seconds.

And nearly crashed right into a trio of Galra fighter ships.

 _“Paladins! We’ve blocked the patrol’s transmissions. You’re clear!”_ Samuel explained.

  _“Rodger that! Let’s take ‘em out!”_ Lance responded enthusiastically.

Keith made short work of two of the fighters, but just as Lance was about to take out the third Pidge shouted at him to stop.

_“Wait! Don’t destroy that ship. We might need it!”_

_“Really?”_ Lance asked dubiously. _“For what?”_

_“I’ve got an idea. We can’t fly our Lions to Earth without being spotted, so they’ll have to stay here on this moon in Saturn’s rings, which should keep them hidden from Sendak. We’ll fly in another way.”_

They dove down and came to a screeching halt on the rocky surface of the moon Pidge had spotted before disbanding. Hunk felt his friends’ psyches split up from his, faintly present when they formed Voltron but always there, strong and comforting. As soon as he powered down the Yellow Lion he braced himself for his connection with the metal beast to fade away as well for the time being, but was still not ready for the total aching emptiness that filled his mind.

“I’ll see you soon,” he promised Yellow. Hunk thought he might have heard a distant rumble, more similar to a purr than anything else in the back of his consciousness, and he managed to smile before skidding down the ramp of Yellow’s jaws and booking it over to the Galran ship they had taken down to use as transport to Earth.

 _“I hope the mice and Kaltenecker aren’t too frightened without us,”_ Allura fretted.

 _“They’ll be okay!”_ Romelle promised her. _“They have the Lions for company!”_

In just another hour they came into view of Earth, and Hunk cried silently at the sight of Galra battleships in orbit around his home. There was no time to mourn, however, and Keith ordered everybody to brace themselves as they entered the planet’s atmosphere.

“Man, this is weird! This is exactly how we left Earth in the cockpit of the Blue Lion,” he noted, trying to distract himself, but then the fighter gave a shudder and almost knocked him off his feet.

 _“We’re overweight! We’re losing altitude!”_ Keith yelled, dark eyes wide with fear. _“Brace for impact!”_

They came down in a desert, and Hunk thought to himself how much it looked like the sandy canyons that surrounded the Galaxy Garrison before they smashed into the dirt at several hundred miles an hour and he lost consciousness for a few minutes.

When he came to, Lance was shaking his shoulder and staring down at him with scared blue eyes. Hunk groaned, clapping his hand into his friend’s for support as the Red Paladin lugged him to his feet.

Everybody else was blessedly okay, but when Hunk saw what they were looking at he released a shaky breath.

“Hey, I know this place. I’ve been here, this is Platt City! It’s about a half hour away from the Garrison,” Hunk realized.

Lance swallowed. “Whoa. I… I can’t believe this is all that’s left of it.”

“We need to get to the Garrison. Stay together,” Keith told them, turning to look at Lance. There was something on his face that made Hunk take pause, but before he could figure out what it was they were heading down to the ruins of Platt City.

<> 

Growing up, Hunk had often been teased mercilessly for his weight.

Fatty, fatass, lard face, big boy… man, he had heard them all. Yeah, he was a large dude, and it earned him some bullies as he went through school. He couldn’t exercise like other kids could, and he ended up shopping in the adult men’s section at clothing stores way earlier than a lot of the other students his age.

One day, after Hal Newman called him a pig for the umpteenth time, he just… snapped. He didn’t fight back against Hal and his crew or anything like that. When he got home, however, he ate a crap-ton of lasagna, yelled at himself in the mirror, and stormed down to the gym a few blocks away. There, he started lifting weights.

But he didn’t get any skinner. In fact, he got even _bigger._ In just a couple of months Hunk was out-lifting a lot of the other regulars at the gym, tossing around several hundred pounds worth of dumbbells and squatting his own weight nearly every day. The next time Hal made a snide remark to him about his size in swimming class, Hunk simply grabbed him by the scruff, lifted him up above his head, and threw him clear across the pool into the deep end.

It was a very fond memory of his.

Hunk wasn’t sure why his brain decided to replay that particular memory as he fought for his life against Galra drones, even if it was a good memory.

 _“Ah!”_ A drone nearly fried a hole through his crotch with a laser blast, and Hunk danced to the side as it came swooping down on him like a frickin’ buzzard or something. Three more joined in and started harassing Pidge, who cursed violently as she missed one and ended up burying her grappling blade into the side of an adjacent building.

The drones rallied and spiraled down to attack once more, and Hunk practically saw the light bulb that lit up above his own head. Grabbing a door that once had been part of a truck, he lifted it high above his head, just like what he had done with Hal Newman, and hurled it at the drones.

The sound of metal against metal was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard, and the drones were knocked clean out of the air.

“Hunk, that was awesome!” Pidge yelled. He turned to her with a grin.

 “Wonder how many of these things are out here?” Keith and Lance came running over, Lance still gripping the trigger on his rifle and looking around for any more drones. “Pidge, any chance we could see these things before they can get to us?”

“Already on it.” Pidge was staring at her wrist screen, already pinpointing the locations of more drones heading towards them. “Four more heading our way!”

The sound of a blaster firing sent them scrambling for cover before they could so much as fart. Hunk rolled under a car, wondering why the universe hated him so. He reminded to ask Lance if he wanted to meditate together later. That was always fun.

“It’s not drones. Look!” Keith pointed towards some ruins not too far away, where robot sentries had taken up position for battle. Lance rolled out from cover and started firing, and Hunk popped up to join them as crossfire coated the city in lasers and ash.

It was then the drones Pidge had found earlier joined the party, and Hunk felt his heart start to beat double time as they opened fire on them as well. He dodged over to avoid being in their direct line of sight-

-only to come fact to face with a sentry barreling right towards him. _“Augh!”_

And then it got hit by a car.

Hunk blinked at the sight before him. The sentry twitched and crackled underneath the tire of the buggy, down for the count, and then somebody leapt out of the car with their blaster raised and fired at another sentry. Another car fishtailed around the corner with its partner and released another soldier in Garrison uniform. “Get down, I got this!”

The drone she shot at exploded into black smoke, and that was that.

“I had it!” Keith snapped at her.

“Keith, buddy. We gotta work on your people skills,” Lance sighed.

The first Garrison soldier wasn’t so amused. “Drones send distress signals when they’re attacked. Our weapons neutralize those signals, so unless you want to deal with a swarm of those things, _let us handle it!”_

Hunk blinked at the tall guy, who turned away from them and started heading back to his car. “Now let’s get out of here before more show up.”

<> 

Riding back to the Galaxy Garrison was the most surreal thing Hunk had ever experienced in his life, and he had been through a _lot_ of weird shit.

This was the place he had studied at since his sophomore year of high school, earlier if one counted all of the consortium programs he had been in since he was younger. He had gotten his first kiss at the Garrison, scored a perfect one-hundred on twenty tests in a row in his bio classes, snuck out with Lance to mess around in the empty classrooms or out in the desert under the shining full moon. This organization had been his home.

As they got closer to the huge wall that protected the numerous buildings within, the massive, titanium-plated doors shielding it from the outside world slowly opened to reveal a narrow tunnel. They zipped right through and into the blinding desert sun. Hunk had to raise an arm over his head at the light, grimacing.

The huge shield forming a protective dome over the place was impressive, sure, but what immediately caught his eye were all of the people waiting for them by the garages.

Standing dead center were Samuel and Colleen Holt, with a white English Bull Terrier sitting patiently by their side.

Pidge gasped, her little fists tightening into the seats as she saw them.

They barely had time to come to a complete stop before she was flying out of the car like she had sprouted wings. Hunk felt himself choke up as she landed in her mother’s arms with a shriek of joy and burst into tears. The entire family sank to their knees, except for Bebe the dog, who started barking hysterically when he realized who the new arrival was and licking Pidge’s face.

“Oh, Katie! I’m so glad you’re home!” Colleen cried, hugging her daughter tight.

_“Lance!”_

Another shout made Hunk turn to see another family, this one more numerous and darker-skinned than the Holts. One of the girls was screaming something in Spanish and jumping up and down, and a middle-aged woman with dark tawny skin and curly brown hair was charging towards the Red Paladin as if her life depended on getting to him.

 _“Mama!”_ Lance screamed. He sprinted towards her and embraced her hard enough for Hunk to hear the impact it created and was promptly assaulted by several small children yelling _“Tío Lance! Tío Lance!”_

 _“Mio hijo, mi hijo precioso,”_ the woman whispered, rocking Lance back and forth as he hyperventilated. Both him and Pidge were crying their eyes out, and Hunk watched them almost enviously. It was the rolling waves of fear in his stomach that kept him from asking a nearby officer where his family was, because a part of him already knew the answer whether he was ready for it or not.

He was suddenly several years in the past, with his younger brother clinging to his shoulders and his sister pulling on his arm.

_“We’re gonna miss you so much when you become a space explorer,” Amosa whined. “You’re gonna be gone, like, forever.”_

_Hunk laughed. “Well, I don’t know about space explorer, I was thinking more of a… mechanic space explorer?”_

_“Can you build us a spaceship?” his little sister gasped excitedly._

_“Well, I don’t need to,” Hunk began, eyeing her slyly. “Because we’re already in one!”_

_He swooped her up and started waving her around like an airplane (with the mandatory sound effects, of course), laying back on the grass and his sister light as a feather in his arms._

“It’s good to have you home.”

A comforting voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and Hunk looked over to Pidge’s dad, who gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“So… my family?” he got out.

Samuel exhaled. “We’ll get them back soon.”

Well, they weren’t dead, as far as the Garrison could tell, right? Right? They were going to be okay. Everything would be okay. It just had to be.

It had to.

He busied himself with watching Keith, Allura, and Shiro greet Iverson, stern-faced and crotchety as ever. The old commander muttered something to Shiro and got Coran instead, who flickered around him like an angry songbird.

Keith and Iverson glared at each other, neither of them looking particularly happy to see the other alive. Kosmo started growling, and Hunk took that as his cue to sidle over to Keith in case he was needed for anything… say, a fistfight.

They didn’t get a fistfight, which Hunk was very happy about, but a tall figure appeared as a door slid open to admit another officer. It was another man, a pair of crooked glasses on his face and an extremely impressive scar slicing up his face and across one eye. One of his arms was also missing from the elbow down. As he was out of uniform and looking like he had just woken up, the t-shirt he wore let Hunk see the scarred stump where the limb once was, but even that wasn’t as jarring as the near-wild look on his face.

“How come nobody woke me up for this?” he demanded, shooting Iverson a nasty look. “One minute everybody is eating my Doritos in the lounge and playing hooky on one of Sandra’s bullshit meetings for the eighteenth hundredth time, not that I can blame them, and then I wake up to a bunch of kids from space-“

 _“Wahid!”_ Iverson barked.

“Kiss my ass, old man, you know as well as anybody that-that… you…”

The man’s one good eye widened, and he started to tremble.

Hunk turned to see what he was looking at, and he gasped when he saw Shiro meeting the guy’s desperate stare, mouth open with equal parts horror, relief, and pure joy.

The world grinded to a stop.

“… Takashi?”

“Adam?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *vine voice* ADAM


	3. Know Your Enemy, Part 2

Shiro felt like he was going to throw up.

After years of fighting for his life, surviving unimaginable trauma, and saving the universe, one would think that nothing could faze him anymore. But nope. All it took was one man to bring him to his knees. Just one.

Adam Al-Mubarak Wahid never had to use any weapons to take Shiro down.

He noticed several things at once- the scar on Adam’s face, the confused looks on all of the other Paladins faces, and somebody saying “Oh, shit, Adam’s gonna beat his _ass.”_

What came out of his mouth was, “Your arm.”

“… Wait, my arm?” Adam blinked. Then he threw up his remaining hand. “My arm?! _Your_ arm! Your. _Arm!!!”_

“Yeah… but…”

Adam sucked in a huge, shaky, breath, and stormed towards Shiro.

He couldn’t take it anymore. When Adam was just a couple feet away, Shiro charged him and buried his face in the crook of Adam’s neck, and yeah, he cried a little. Guess everybody was crying today, huh?

 “Adam!”

“Keith!” Shiro got shoved away, and he stood there for a little bit, blinking in confusion at the sudden rejection before he saw Adam all but try and pick Keith up with his remaining arm. “Look at you, you’ve gotten so _big!_ What did they feed you up there, huh?”

“C’mon, Adam, _stooppp,_ you’re embarrassing me!” Keith groaned, trying and failing to wiggle away from his assailant.

“Shush, you big baby. I’m allowed to be happy to see that the kid I called my son for years is alive and well.” Adam gave Keith a stern look, who immediately looked guilty and let the older man give him one last squeeze before releasing him.

Shiro couldn’t keep his eyes off Adam, even as something in him ached at the sight of the ruined part of the man’s face and the space where his arm once was. They had so much to talk about, even though he hated to admit it, and he definitely owed Adam several apologies. _God,_ how had he messed up so badly?

He almost missed the look on Lance’s face when he turned a little.

Lance was staring up at him with wide blue eyes, something being said without words that reminded Shiro of a lost kid, but before he could ask the Red Paladin if he was okay Veronica McClain broke in. She was smiling, but the serious furrow of her brows gave away the seriousness of the upcoming situation. “We’re so happy to have you all back on Earth, but right now we have some more… pressing matters to attend to.”

<> 

“Pressing” didn’t even begin to cover it, Shiro thought in a kind of horrified amazement as Samuel Holt began the debriefing. Apparently Sendak had conquered the whole planet in about a year, give or take a few months, and with accessibility to resources being choked out by enemy forces the entirety of the Garrison was slowly being starved to death.

“Nobody else has put up a fight against Sendak?” Shiro demanded, not believing that nobody else had ever taken a stand against the bastard. This was the guy who had taken his arm, his sanity. Maybe he was just vengeful, but if nobody else was going to give it their all to kick Sendak’s ass to kingdom come then he would do it, _dammit._

“Small underground pockets of resistance have attempted to do so with varying degrees of success. Eventually, all were discovered and systematically wiped out,” Veronica told him, her voice cold with anger for all of the people that died. “Earth’s offensive capabilities simply don’t stand a chance against the Galra.”

“Why don’t we bring more people into this base?” Hunk asked, leaning in worriedly.

“We’ve had to put a halt to our extraction operations as they were proving to be too… risky,” Samuel Holt said tiredly.

“But… there are good people out there. They need to be protected! My _family_ is out there!” Hunk argued. Shiro could see the grief and rage in his eyes, so much more than any kid his age should have.

“If we have an opportunity now-“ Hunk began, his voice hoarse, but was abruptly cut off.

“Hey! Do Paladins not understand the chain of command? We already _said_ it was too dangerous!” The tall guy from before said earlier, glaring down at Hunk with undisguised distaste.

“Officer Griffin, that’s enough,” Samuel Holt spat.

“Nobody gives a shit about your chain of command, _James,”_ Keith snarled. “None of my Paladins answer to the Garrison, least of all you!”

“Damn straight!” Pidge added. Brown eyes blazed with anger. “You shit-jockeys covered up Kerberos and told the whole world that my dad, brother, and Shiro died because of _pilot error,_ and I know for a fact that wasn’t the first mission you’ve swept under the rug! None of you care about _any_ of us, much less anything else that doesn’t deal with building and obtaining Class A weaponry!”

“Paladins!” Shiro barked. He met Adam’s gaze, who nodded slowly, as if he was confirming everything Pidge had just said.

_Holy shit, we just made an enemy out of the Galaxy Garrison._

Iverson stared down at them with an icy black eye. “I would have _all_ of you arrested for the accusations you just made-”

“Do it, then,” Lance sneered. “See how well Earth fares without Voltron.”

“That’s hardly your call, _boy._ Lance McClain, was it? I’d love to see what you can scrap up against us.”

“Actually, it _is_ his call. Lance is my second-in-command,” Keith broke in, deadly calm. “Anything he says goes, as far as I’m concerned. I’m just the guy who signs on the dashed line.”

Lance turned to look at Keith with a downright glowing look on his face, but Iverson turned to look at Shiro with a forced grimace wrinkling his mouth. “And you, Captain Shirogane?”

 _Does this son of a bitch think that if he plays nice to me he’ll get pets and treats?_ “Uh, yeah, I’m retired now, so…”

He could have gotten off to the quiet but very apparent mental breakdown Iverson had after he said that. Adam muffled his snickering behind his one hand.

Veronica was obviously trying to not laugh as Keith and Lance got up and marched their way to the front of the conference room, ignoring the various personnel that scrambled to get out of their way. Iverson spluttered as Samuel Holt stepped back to allow Keith to take his place.

“Consider yourselves your own person again, folks,” Lance announced proudly.

 _“We’re_ in charge now.” Keith smirked at a wide-eyed and fuming James Griffin. “Until stated otherwise, all officers will report to me and Lance concerning, well… everything. We’re going to fight this war, and we’re going to do it _our_ way.”

“Oh, boy,” Romelle whispered. Krolia’s fanged smile was all for her son as she gazed at him with all of the loving pride a mother could have.

Allura stood, becoming the princess once more instead of the paladin. “We’ve heard of the advancements in Earth technology through use of Altean ones. We’d like to see them.”

“Right away, Princess!” Veronica exclaimed, bowing and gesturing to the door.

Shiro followed Allura to the door, but he didn’t take his eyes off Adam as he nodded in response to something another officer said to him. When he caught the man’s eye, he gave Adam a meaningful look. Adam nodded, and then he got up and went with the other officers as if nothing had happened.

He was loathe to leave him again so soon after finally reuniting with his ex-fiancé, but duty called, and Shiro soon found himself on an elevator taking them down to a below-ground level.

Samuel Holt took charge of the tour as they looked at various ships. “The mecha-flex exo-fighters, or MFEs, are extremely agile with advanced weaponry, but they’re only capable of short-range attacks. Sustaining their energy with Altean technology is an issue we’re trying to overcome,” he explained.

“Maybe I can help you out with that!” Coran volunteered jubilantly. “I do have some leftover phonotonium. It’s an Altean fuel additive, but also has some _unexpected_ side effects, so… don’t get any on you.”

Samuel Holt stared after him as the Altean marched out the elevator door, looking like he was regretting letting Coran near any of his fighters.

They were then presented with a battleship apparently large enough to house the entirety of the Garrison, the Lions, and some extras. Shiro had lived in a literal castle-ship for a couple years, but even he was impressed with the massive piece of tech.

“It can’t fly,” Admiral Sandra told him bluntly. She was a tall woman, with graying blonde hair, stern brown eyes, and sharp crow’s feet around her eyes despite the fact Shiro had never seen her smile. “And there’s a subject we cannot avoid any longer. Sendak attacked Earth because he wanted the Lions. And now they’re here. It seems that at least we need to discuss our options.”

Shiro stared at her in shock. “Are you suggesting that we willingly hand over the Lions to the Galra?”

“Our supplies are gone. We spent all of our resources on a ship that doesn’t fly! The weapons we do have are not enough to mount an attack. All we can do is protect a small pocket of Earth, but for how much longer?” Sandra demanded.

“The universe _needs_ the Lions!” Samuel argued.

“So does Earth! They’re our only bargaining chips.”

“I agree with the Admiral,” another officer stated. “Earth has been nearly destroyed. Countless citizens have been lost. But it could all be over if we give up the Lions.”

“We have a fighting chance now that the Lions are here! We need to take it!” Iverson practically hissed. Shiro looked over at him in surprise, not expecting _him_ of all people to be on their side.

Allura stepped forward, eyes glinting with a thousand different shades of blue and violet. “I’ll settle this argument right now. We’re not giving up the Lions under any circumstances. There is no negotiating with Sendak.”

“You need to leave the matters of Earth to the people who live here!” Admiral Sandra snapped.

Shiro swallowed his pride and stepped forward to look the woman in the eye. “Please, Admiral. I respect that you’ll do anything you can to protect Earth. But _trust us._ We know him more than you could ever imagine. We have fought the Galra Empire on the fringes of the universe and in their very home! I _know_ there is a way to defeat Sendak.”

“How? We barely know what we’re up against! We need intelligence and we just don’t have it!” the Admiral shouted.

“Maybe we do,” Allura noted. She turned to Samuel. “What information from the Castle of Lions consists of Sendak’s memories?”

“How does that help?” the older man asked.

“It might give us some insight into Sendak’s plan! Allura, you’re a genius!” Pidge cried.

Samuel nodded proudly and looked over to Admiral Sandra. “We just need some time.”

The Admiral glared at him for a long moment. Nobody dared to speak, as if they were trying to remain hidden from a predator that was already on top of them. Shiro heard Keith tap the hilt of his bayard furiously.

Finally, she nodded, and Shiro followed Samuel Holt back to the elevator. Pidge, Allura, and her mom split off from them to go see what they could find, while Shiro and Coran trailed after Samuel as he claimed he had something to show them.

“I’m impressed, despite Earth’s crude and primitive capabilities! So much potential in this little planet. Ah, to see a young civilization grow and develop,” Coran sighed as they were showed the inside of the huge battleship from before.

“I’m unable to recreate the power of a Balmeran crystal,” Samuel confessed. “The energy needed to power this thing would need to be nearly limitless, and well… I’m afraid we don’t have a lot of limitless resources around these parts. Maybe your phonotonium would help?”

Coran scratched his chin. “I’m afraid not. A ship like this would need two to three full-sized Balmeran crystals just to get it off the ground!”

“I don’t suppose there are any Balmera nearby?” Shiro groaned, scrubbing his face with his hands. God, could he just go see Adam already? He felt like he was going to lose his mind.

“With this young galaxy?” Coran guffawed, slapping his thigh as he laughed. “Yeah, it’s right next to the whizblattle! … That’s a no, by the way. No Balmeras around here.”

Shiro let his head fall against the wall with a _thump._

It took another half hour of Coran and Samuel brainstorming up ideas to get the battleship up and running for them to get distracted enough for him to slip away. He would be nearly to the door, and then Coran would ask him for his opinion on something, and of course Shiro had no clue what they were talking about, and then he would have to bullshit an answer that made both of the other men scratch their heads in confusion. The second he was out of their range of vision, though, he was running, running like his life depended on it, and he didn’t stop until he rounded the corner that led to where he needed to go.

During their time together he and Adam would always meet at a certain lounge room, Room 334 to be exact. It was where they had met for the first time… and it was where they had broken up.

When he slipped in Adam was kneeling on the floor, his prayer rug a splash of russet-gold against the cool silver and black of the Garrison furnishings. He could barely hear the faint murmuring of Arabic despite the dead quiet as Adam prayed. It always soothed him, and Shiro was reminded of all of the quiet evenings they had shared together- him reading on the couch after a long day, dinner in the oven and Keith upstairs doing his homework (or watching martial arts videos on YouTube, the little goblin), and Adam doing his thing nearby.

After another few seconds Adam sat back on his knees, exhaling deeply. He got up, rolled his rug into a tight tube and shoved it into his backpack, and marched over to Shiro.

“Are you going to slap me like they do in movies?” he asked dryly.

“Very funny. But I am going to call you an idiot because literally everything I said was going to happen happened even though you said it wouldn’t.”

“Wrong. You said I’d die up there because of my muscular dystrophy. I died because I got blasted in an epic boss fight with an alien emperor and sent to the astral plane to dick around for a few years before I got revived into a clone body,” he explained, putting his hand on his hip.

“… Takashi, what the fuck?” Adam spluttered.

“And I’m cured now, I guess. Somehow during the transfer from my old body to this one my muscles got their shit together and stopped degenerating.”

“Yes, I can see that,” the other man hissed, glaring at him.

“Are you checking me out?”

“Are you- you _bastard!_ You think you can waltz back in her like nothing ever happened?” Adam shouted. “Keith and I thought you were dead for _years!”_

“Wrong again. Keith never gave up on me, Adam, not once! You could do us a favor and start taking a page out of his book!” Shiro snapped back, shoving a finger at him.

“How could I not? There wasn’t even a body!” Adam shot back.

“What, like I was supposed to float my corpse back to Earth somehow? Maybe if you had just _believed_ in me for once I would have been strong enough to get back sooner!”

Adam’s mouth fell shut. He shook his head, slow and exhausted. “Was it wrong for me to want to spend my last years with you here? I always believed in you, Takashi. I just… I just hoped we could have made the most of our time together as a family. With Keith, too.”

“And have you both watch me slowly and painfully die?” Shiro cried out.

He looked over at him. “Is… is this what this is all about?”

“I… maybe?”

There was a minute of silence. Shiro couldn’t bring himself to look at the man he once called his fiancé. That he shared a bed with, raised an incredible, weird-as-hell family alongside.

“Did you mean what you said? About you believing in me?” he asked.

Adam’s expression turned from anger to a sweet, regretful grimace. “Of course I do. There’s nobody I have more faith in. I… I know I should have supported you more, Takashi, but I was so _scared,_ and I lashed out. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but-“

Shiro wrapped him up tight in a hug. When Adam returned it, he let out a shaky sigh of relief. “I’m sorry, too, Adam. Won’t be doing any more of that stupidity.”

He felt more than heard the other man laugh. “Not without me or Keith to make sure your dumb ass doesn’t get killed again.”

“Fair enough.” Shiro paused, his eyes staring distantly at the floor behind Adam. “Do… do you think we should get back together now? Like how it was before? I mean, but better now, obviously…”

Adam pulled back a little and rested his hand on Shiro’s shoulder, dark eyes warm and a little sad. His heart twanged. “I think we both know that’s not what’s best right now. I’ll always love you, Takashi, don’t get me wrong on that. But you have a lot of soul-searching in your future if you want to heal from all of the shit that’s happened to you, and I… well. I know I still have some growing up to do.

Shiro nodded in agreement, hurting but somehow relieved at the same time.

“I’m just so glad you’re here right now,” Adam laughed, a little incredulous.

“Me too.” Shiro grinned at him, bumping his shoulder as they walked out of the lounge together to see what needed to be done next. “By the way, you never did tell me how you lost your arm and, like, half of your face.”

Adam rolled his one good eye. “Fuck’s sake, Takashi, it’s just my eye and some skin. If you must know, I got blown up by a Galran battleship several thousand feet in the air and fell back to the ground. And no, my parachute never deployed.”

“Impressive!”

“Why, thank you. I’ve gotten pretty popular because of it,” Adam sniffed.

“Popular with any men?”

“Amazingly, no. I can’t believe Garrison men still want their partners with both eyes and arms.”

“Stupid human standards. You should try other planets, Adam, aliens aren’t so fussy about limbs and things when most of them have never even seen a human before.”

Adam snorted. “You know, I might take you up on that.”

Almost as if on cue, Pidge came flying around the corner and spotted them. “Shiro! Captain Wahid! Thank God. Hunk, Keith, and Lance ran off to get Hunk’s family back!”

Shiro looked to the ceiling and counted to ten. “… Of course they did.”

“Definitely your kid,” Adam snickered.

“My kid? I’m not his _dad!”_ he yelled as Adam took off running after Pidge. “Hey! Wait the hell up, you two!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing I did not like about Season 7 and 8 was that suddenly the Galaxy Garrison and Voltron were chummy buddies. Like, they covered up the Kerberos mission, the disappearance of four kids on their property, the Voltron radio chatter Pidge picked up in the first episode, and who knows what else over the years? Like maybe it's just me but I've always felt that they were hyping up the Galaxy Garrison to be another antagonistic force. Sorry y'all, but I live by #fuckthegarrison, most definitely founded by Pidge, Adam, and Keith. 
> 
> Also idk who started Muslim!Adam, but I love it. 
> 
> Get ready for a whole lot of crazy, my dudes.


	4. Know Your Enemy, Part 3

When Keith found Hunk and Lance they were either trying to break apart a sink or fix it, and it didn’t become any easier to figure out which after Hunk started yelling at the pipes.

“Stupid-ass piece of junk! You don’t even deserve to be part of a kitchen! Your whole family is ashamed of you,” he shouted.

“Tell ‘em, Hunk! Show it who’s the boss!” Lance urged.

 _“You! Aren’t! Shit!”_ Hunk screamed, jabbing a finger into the metal.

Keith stared at the two of them, a little worried. Over the years they had spent together in space, he learned that Hunk swore in only two kinds of situations: if he was quoting a Vine, meme, or any combination thereof, or if he was really, _really_ angry. “Is… everything okay in here?”

Hunk groaned, catching a rag Lance tossed at him. The dark bags under his eyes didn’t vanish even with the harsh fluorescent lighting and made him look ten years older. “Ugh, yeah. Well, actually…” He looked over at Lance, who nodded encouragingly.

The Yellow Paladin took a deep breath and slammed his fist down on the table. “This whole thing _sucks!_ I-I-I can’t believe we finally get back to Earth and it’s taken over by _Galra.”_

“No offense,” Lance quickly added.

“None taken,” Keith replied, eyes wide at Hunk’s blatant display of anger. “Let the man express himself freely.”

“And-And I know it’s stupid, but I used to daydream about coming home to a peaceful Earth. And that would have been great. But then I realized that nothing, _nothing_ would have been greater than seeing my family. But… I can’t. And all I keep thinking about was that I wasn’t there for them. I don’t even know if they’re still alive.” Hunk’s voice broke on the last word, and he squeezed his eyes shut as the tears began streaking down his cheeks.

Lance leaned into him and pressed his face into his shoulder. Not for the first time, Keith was reminded that Lance and Hunk had been best friends since, like, _forever._ They had gone into the Garrison together as high school buddies, ran away together to figure out what the Garrison was hiding that fateful night not too many years ago.

He didn’t have to analyze Lance’s expression for too long as he squeezed Hunk’s bicep. The guy was no doubt blaming himself in some stupid way, because he got his family back and his best friend didn’t. Lance was like that, and it made Keith want to throw himself in front of any danger that came his way.

Keith turned back to a trembling Hunk. “Look. I never told you this, but… of all the Paladins, you’re the one I’m most impressed by. It’s no secret that you’ve always been the most scared, but you’ve never backed down. _Never._ And to be brave is to go on in spite of fear, and that’s who you are, Hunk. I know you’re scared, but your family, they need you to be strong right now.”

“Is that why you accused me of wanting to leave Voltron?” Hunk laughed shakily, wiping his face.

Keith winced, remembering his little mental breakdown out in the ass-end void of space when they had been blasted away from their Lions. “Uh, yeah. Sorry about that. To be fair I kind of _was_ going insane…”

“Me too,” Lance snorted. “Space does some weird shit to people, huh? But Hunk, you saved us, remember? You were the one to see that vacuum-breather monster was tryna’ finesse us!”

“… Finesse?” Keith asked, confused.

“It’s slang, Keithy,” Lance explained, waving a hand at him. He resisted the urge to either punch his second-in-command or throw him out the window.

“So yeah. Space-crazy Keith is full of shit. I’m sorry for everything I said,” Keith sighed, running a hand through his hair. He barely had time to inhale again before he was being crushed into a hug.

“Oh, right, now we’re huggin’,” he wheezed, aiming a half-assed kick at a snickering Lance as Hunk basically forced all the air from his lungs. When he was released Keith turned and tackled Lance and dragged him into Hunk’s grasp as well.

“No, no, no! Hunk’s hugs must be _savored,_ not used up all at once!” Lance wailed as Hunk squeezed him tight. “Hunk! Let go of my arms so I can hug you back!”

“Sorry, guys, maybe next time.” He set Lance down, grinned at Keith, and stormed towards the doorway with the air of a man on a mission.

“Where are you going?” Keith demanded.

“I’m going to get my family back.”

“Not without us, you aren’t!” Grabbing Lance’s hand, he started running after Hunk, who did his best impression of a war cry as they raced down the corridor together. Geez, for such a big guy, Hunk was fast as _hell._

“Guys! Are we even- pfft! Are we allowed to do this?” Lance demanded through his laughter, grinning from ear to ear.

Keith looked back at him, feeling a smile of his own grow. “We’re in charge now, remember?”

“Oh, shit, we are!”

“Ahaha!”

<> 

He ended up taking the lead as they headed into a more populated area of the building. The garages were in Section A-4 of the building, which was right up against the front.

“How did you know where to go?” Lance asked in amazement as Keith yanked off the panel for the garage door and started rearranging the wires.

“I was a bit of a wild child back in my day, just ask Shiro or Adam… wait, didn’t you two sneak out a lot as well?”

“Uh, yeah, on foot! We weren’t about to steal a _car!”_ Lance spluttered.

“Nerd.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Hey, guys, shh! I know you two decided to run this joint but let’s keep this on the down-low just in case, okay?” Hunk pleaded.

“Sorry.” Keith touched the two wires he was looking for together, and the door raised to reveal the dark garage beyond.

Lance and Hunk darted inside, and Keith put everything back together, slapped the panel back on the garage key, and slipped under the door just as it closed.

The three of them ducked behind a pile of boxes and did the fastest clothes-into-armor change Keith could remember. Regular Garrison uniforms wouldn’t do it for life-threatening missions, and if they messed up the ones they had been given he doubted Iverson would fork over another several pairs out of the goodness of his heart.

The three of them picked out a car that was fairly close to the outside wall. Keith gave them the signal, and they made a break for it to the vehicle.

They almost made it, too.

Just as they were about to climb up the back a light came on, nearly blinding Keith and making him swear. Lance yelped and fell off the rear tire. Boots scuffed the floor as Hunk crouched into a fighting stance, dark eyes slit with determination.

“You two heading somewhere?” a familiar voice taunted.

 _Motherfu-_ “This doesn’t concern either of you,” Keith growled, looking at James and then Veronica McClain, who was leaning against the side of another car.

“Veronica! You’re with that clown?” Lance demanded angrily.

Veronica ignored him. “No, but you’ll probably be concerned with the patrol drones that’ll spot you in seconds.”

“And you might be concerned with the blasts from Sendak’s automated low-orbit, long-range blaster satellites that takes you right out,” James added as he dropped to the floor.

“What’s your problem?” Hunk demanded, stepping forward to put himself in front of Lance.

James snorted. “My problem is that I don’t want to see our only hope for saving Earth get hurt. That’s why we’re coming with you.”

Keith stared at him in shock. This nutsack-sniffer would have met the inside of his own ass if it was just him, but Lance and Hunk were there, and Lance’s _sister,_ so he saw no way out of it.

“Aw, _hell_ nah,” Lance whined under his breath. Keith sighed, clapped his shoulder, and followed James and Veronica to their car.

<> 

“She did it! The signal’s sent,” James told them, shoulders slumping in relief as Veronica made it to the other side of the street and gave him the signal.

“Now what?” Hunk asked nervously.

James leaned back and cracked his neck. “Now, we wait.”

Lance was keeping an eye on the sentries, crouched down right next to Keith, which was the only reason he felt safe. He remembered when the Red Paladin had shot a knife coming right at him in mid-air.

There was no better shot than his sharpshooter.

As they moved to another part of the block, the telltale metallic footsteps of the sentries suddenly echoed out from inside the building they were just in.

“Shit! They must have sensed our heat signatures!” Veronica spat.

Keith was already on it, pulling up a drain cover and waving the rest of them over. “Get in!”

They piled down the narrow ladder and flattened themselves against the concrete walls of the sewer. As the lights from the robots swept over the hole they all tensed, waiting for the worst. Keith could feel Lance behind him, his breathing coming in harsh through their comm link.

He didn’t know what possessed him to do it, but suddenly his fingers were threaded through Lance’s and holding tight. Lance squeezed back, and he exhaled.

Just as Keith shifted slightly to see if the sentries were gone, another beam of light hit him in the eye, and he flinched back. James raised his blaster, and the Black Paladin looked again to see-

The face of a middle-aged man.

He looked deadly serious, dirty, had a gun at his hip and was shining a flashlight at them. “Come with me.”

They all looked at each other. Veronica shrugged.

Quickly, one by one, they scrambled out of the sewer. Lance, Veronica and James were the first three out, firearms drawn and pointed at the man. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind one bit. As soon as Hunk put the cover back into place he nodded to the west and started walking.

Keith looked at Lance, who nodded.

They ended up following the guy to his skyscraper not a mile away. He had a pretty sweet setup in his apartment, with maps all over the walls detailing what appeared to be various stages of the Galra invasion. Keith could appreciate a fellow visual learner.

“Amazing. The rumor is true,” the man proclaimed in a heavy Australian accent as he showed them his maps. “The Paladins have come in spite of the Galran takeover. Once more people find out the resistance will be fightin’ back even harder!”

“Thank you for saving us. We thought the sentries would kill us,” Hunk told him.

The man smiled. “No problem, young man. These days it’s important to help each other out. If the Galra have done any good, it’s uniting all of humanity, even if it is against a common threat.”

“Tell the resistance we’re going to defeat the Galra, no matter what it takes.” Hunk nudged Keith, who smiled.

“Words we’ve waited a long time to hear!”

Veronica was at the window, binoculars trained on something in the distance. “Is that where they’ve taken all of the prisoners?”

 _The prisoners?_ Keith hurried over to her.

Sure enough, he could see a huge mining field of sorts, with Galra tech littering the area like heavy machinery at a construction site. “What are they _doing_ down there?”

“They’ve been workin’ day and night mining shit for Sendak. It’s been nonstop for months. He’s building something, and none of us are sure what,” the man growled.

“I thought the labor force was on the other side of the desert! What’s it doing so close to the Garrison?” Veronica demanded.

“One more thing they’ve been hiding from us,” Lance snarled.

James looked horrified. “Admiral Sandra, she… dammit. She told us it was outside of Galran territory, too. Was… was she just giving us false hope?”

“They were outside,” the man explained. “But they got moved in.”

“What does that mean?” Hunk asked sharply.

“It means… we can’t get you to your parents, Hunk,” Veronica muttered, defeated. Keith felt his stomach drop.

“Even if they are closer than Sandra said, there’s no way we could beat them on their own turf,” James said, looking genuinely miserable. The constant urge to punch him lessened considerably.

“No!” Hunk clenched his jaw, looking terrified. “No. I…”

Veronica handed him her binoculars, and Hunk grabbed them eagerly. He scanned the area furiously for several minutes, brows furrowed. Keith knew it was a lost cause, but they let Hunk do his thing until he gave up and passed Veronica her binoculars. Lance put a hand on his back, and together, they left the remains of the skyscraper.

<> 

When they got back James and Veronica just about broke the sound barrier as they ran back into the Garrison, leaving Lance, Hunk, and Keith behind.

Lance frowned. “Veronica told me she was going to tell all of the other officers what’s up. I hope she doesn’t get into too much trouble.”

“She’s your sister. She can handle a little bit of trouble,” Hunk sighed.

“True.”

“I’m glad Griffin came to his senses. That bastard was hard enough to deal with as it is,” Keith growled. He still hated the guy, but at least he knew that James had more than three brain cells in that thick skull of his.

“What’s up with you and James?” Lance asked, turning to look at him. “You just about tore him apart during the debriefing.”

“Early Garrison days. I kept doing better than him in everything. He bullied me for not having any parents. Y’know, the usual,” Keith explained.

“He made fun of you for- _I’m gonna beat his ass!”_ Lance hissed. He seemed to expand to twice his size in his anger. Slender fists clenched, and he started pacing back and forth and muttering under his breath.

“Ooh, are you Keith’s knight in shining armor?” Hunk teased.

Lance whirled around to glare at him. “No! I just… nobody makes fun of anybody for not having parents! That’s fucked up!”

“Well, Griffin did. Don’t worry, I got back at him,” Keith assured him. It made his heart beat faster to hear Lance get so huffy over him.

_Ugh, don’t be an idiot, Keith._

“Really? What did you do?”

“Went to one of his parties, videoed him drunkenly making out with like, the entire Garrison, and then ‘accidentally’ sent it to everybody that I knew. He almost got kicked out after,” he explained innocently.

Lance’s mouth dropped. “Kogane, you _legend.”_

“Thank you.”

The sound of rushed footsteps made him turn to see Adam running over to greet them, and he did not look happy.

“Where the hell did you three go? Takashi’s gone into surgery to get a new arm and you guys go out for a beer run?” he yelled.

“We went to go see if we could get my family back,” Hunk mumbled.

Adam opened his mouth, one finger raised, before dropping it with a sigh. “Okay, that’s fair. But if you guys pull that shit again, _ya Allah!”_

“Sorry, Adam. We’ll be more responsible from now on,” Keith offered.

“Uh-huh. Come on, I’ll take you guys to Takashi.”

They made it to the surgery room just in time to see Shiro wake up. Pidge and Allura were already there, eyeing them with raised brows.

“Traitor,” Lance muttered to Pidge. She just rolled her eyes.

“Takashi and I were about to go looking for you when Allura found us and said she designed a whole new arm for him. I told him to go ahead with surgery while we’re still not under attack, and I was literally about to go get my car when I found you guys,” Adam explained.

Keith stared at Shiro. The man was looking around woozily, before locking on to Samuel Holt in his biohazard suit. His new arm rested beside him in his bed, similar to the one he had before save the clean white material instead of cold titanium alloy. It was kind of fitting- after all, “Shiro” literally meant “white” in Japanese, from what he remembered of Shiro’s half-assed attempts to teach him his language many years ago. Keith, in return, half-assed teaching him Korean. It was a fun, if not confusing trade.

The robotic arm powered on, lighting up with electric blue. Shiro raised it carefully, staring in awe as he wiggled the fingers and flexed it at the elbow.

He heard Adam breathe a sigh of relief, and he looked up to see him staring warmly at Shiro.

“Did you guys have a talk?” Keith asked, bumping Adam’s arm with his own.

“Yes, we had a talk like functional adults, you absolute _goblin-“_ Adam groaned, but then Shiro tried to sit up on his own and started convulsing. Keith whipped around to stare at him in horror as his mouth opened in a shriek, even as he heard nothing through the sound-proof glass.

 _“Takashi!”_ Adam screamed.

Samuel Holt got slapped aside by Shiro’s flailing even as Allura yanked off her tiara and let it clang to the floor, the crystal clutched tightly in her fist. Adam raced after her as they charged down the hallway, and he didn’t hesitate to bust down the door that led to the surgery room. Glass shattered everywhere. Allura leapt over Shiro like a cat and grabbed his arm, pinning it to the bed while Adam restrained the former Paladin himself, most likely being the only person strong enough to do so.

“Sam! Help me remove the power source!” Keith heard Allura cry.

Keith watched, terrified and feeling completely helpless, as Allura and Adam wrestled furiously with Shiro. Allura yanked off the panel covering the complex circuits of the arm, and Samuel went in for the kill.

He slammed the Altean crystal into place just as Shiro flatlined.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so Shiro's new arm is weird and I don't like it. So in the rewrite, his new arm kind of looks like his old one except more "Altean", okay? That weird floating abomination never happened. Although the prank potential would be limitless, I'm afraid Old Floaty died in canon. RIP Old Floaty.


	5. Heart of the Lion, Part 1

Pidge ran in just as Shiro stabilized, eyes opening to stare at them blearily.

“Is he okay?” she demanded.

“Katie, if your mother knew you were in here she’d _kill_ me,” her dad moaned.

She winced. “If you don’t tell, I won’t.”

Shiro grunted and managed to sit up, supported by Adam. “What… what happened? I feel… strange. “

“Good strange or bad strange?” Lance asked worriedly. His lips were pursed tightly together like a worried mom, which almost made Pidge laugh.

“I feel… I feel _great,”_ the older man clarified.

“You do?” Adam laughed, reaching over to tangle his human fingers with Shiro’s robotic ones. Shiro blinked in amazement, curling his hand gently around the other man’s. “Holy shit, Takashi, you had me about to piss myself!”

“Sorry,” he said with a yawn.

“So what was that, the… _fifth_ time you’ve died?” Keith spluttered

“Fourth,” Shiro corrected.

“Fourth time you… _Allah,_ help me.” Adam rubbed his temples. “Come on, big guy. We’ve got another debriefing to suffer through.”

<> 

Pidge got to lead the debriefing, which was awesome. She _loved_ presenting to people, even if it was about the alien race hellbent on taking over their planet and killing everybody they knew and loved, and then absorbing it into their universe-wide empire.

Yay.

“We’ve learned so much from Sendak’s memories,” she declared to the assembled Garrison officers. “We’ve discovered his methods for taking over planets like Earth.”

 She and Allura had spent _hours_ asking the Galran Commander about his strategies, his various conquests, how the Galra trained. Pidge even asked how the Galra spent their free time, to which Sendak replied that most soldiers went to go spend time with their family. Blood was an important aspect in Galran culture, she learned, and it dictated who they spoke to, who they didn’t speak to, even _how long they lived._ It was completely fascinating.

Her Mom didn’t want her to spend any more time with “Sendak” than she had to, unfortunately, and she all but got dragged out of the room after Allura went to take a break. When Sendak had mentioned Altea, something in the princess had just… broke. It hurt Pidge to see her friend like that, and it made her want to question Sendak even more to find out everything she could.

“Sendak constructs bases at key strategic points around planets. This gives him the ability to control enormous swaths of territory. He uses the bases as deterrents to prevent any uprisings and to control the captive populations,” Allura explained.

Veronica pulled up her own data on the front screen for the officers and Paladins to see. “Based on data from Commander Holt’s microsatellites cross-referenced with Resistance intel, we’ve ascertained that Sendak built six massive structures on Earth. We never knew what they were being used for until now.”

“They’re the weapons?” Hunk asked incredulously. “So what’s stopping us from blowing them up?”

“We simply don’t have enough firepower to do the job, and even if we did there’s a good chance those facilities contain civilians. We can’t just go in blind,” Admiral Sandra growled.

“Admiral Sandra’s right,” Shiro said, although it looked like it pained him to do so. Pidge resisted the urge to smirk. “That’s why we should infiltrate a base and gather intelligence first.”

“The nearest base is fifty-two kilometers south of our position. Not three-hundred and twenty seven, as previously stated,” Veronica said icily. Admiral Sandra tensed angrily, looking like she was ready to give the younger officer a good beating, but Veronica continued before she could do so.

“What’s the terrain like?” Shiro asked.

Veronica clicked around on her tablet to focus in on the nearby base. “The region around what we’ll call Base One is a complex urban environment. Our route would take us through highly patrolled areas. It’ll be hard to keep proper surveillance of our surroundings due to all of the structural damage to the buildings.”

Shiro nodded. “Then I suggest we form two teams: a ground unit that will attempt to infiltrate Base One and keep eyes on whatever’s inside, and a sniper team that observes from a higher position covering the ground unit and providing visibility. Keith? Lance?”

“Sounds good, Shiro,” Keith said approvingly. Lance smiled when Admiral Sandra turned to glare at him.

“You really think we’re just going to blindly follow the orders of a bunch of children, an alien princess, and a beaten-up POW?” she snarled.

Keith leaned forward to glare at the woman. “If you want to get out of his invasion alive, I suggest you do just that. We’ve done hundreds, if not thousands of missions like these in space and it’s with absolute certainty that I say we’re _very_ good at it. How many Galran bases have you snuck into, Admiral?”

Admiral Sandra bared her teeth in frustration and sat back in her chair with enough violence to made the commander next to her nearly jump out of his skin. Keith’s fists tensed, but before he could do or say anything Lance leaned over a bit and rested a hand on his arm, murmuring something into his ear. Pidge couldn’t hear what he said, but from Keith’s grunt of agreement it seemed to have calmed the Black Paladin down.

 _Matt’s gonna flip when I tell him about that,_ she noted smugly.

“Remember to use communication sparingly and keep moving. And don’t forget to keep your eyes on the patrol drones,” Veronica warned.

With that, the debriefing dispersed, and everybody headed out to get ready for the mission.

<> 

Pidge ended up in a car with Keith, Kosmo, Allura, and that James Griffin guy who Keith almost beat up. Hunk, Kinkade, Lance, and Veronica went in the other car to be sniper support.

 _“Y’know, a map would have been just fine. You didn’t need to come along on this mission,”_ she heard Lance tell Veronica, tone laced with worry. Pidge didn’t blame him. Before she learned that Matt was still alive she drove herself insane on the daily wondering if he was okay; it’s not like he had been the greatest fighter back at home. He was the kind of guy who almost started crying whenever he would stub his toe on the coffee table. Pidge always gave him shit for it, which she regretted so much once she lost him.

Then it turned out Matt was perfectly fine and kicking tons of ass, and she stopped worrying.

 _“What are you talking about? I’ve been going on these missions for months now. No one knows the terrain better than me,”_ Veronica scoffed.  

Lance huffed. _“Yeah, I just don’t like to see you put yourself in danger.”_

 _“First of all, that’s very sweet, hermanito.”_ Veronica cooed before growling. _“But knock it off. You’re an idiot if you think I’m not going to defend our home.”_

Pidge almost _felt_ Lance cringing away in fear. She snickered. Lance had always been the fussy “older brother” back on the Castle of Lions, constantly keeping tabs on everybody no matter what. Now it was _his_ turn to get put in check.

 _“So…”_ Hunk clucked his tongue several times. _“You excited for this mission?”_

Kinkade grunted.

_“Mood.”_

It wasn’t long before Pidge found herself in a sewer, which was always fun. They barely made it a couple hundred feet before her comm crackled.

 _“Patrol drones ahead,”_ Lance reported.

She, Allura, Keith, Griffin, and Kosmo ducked behind a wall as the robots came flying by. Once Keith gave the all-clear they darted back out and started heading deeper into the tunnels. There was a long half-hour or so where nobody talked, just walked, climbed, or crawled, before Pidge decided to have a bit of fun.

Checking to make sure her comm link was private between her, Keith, and Allura, she turned it on and braced herself for the explosion.

 _“So… what’s up with you and Lance?”_ she asked Keith.

His reaction did not disappoint. _“What?!”_

Allura giggled.

Pidge quickly played dumb. _“What? I saw Lance say something to you at the debriefing that made you calm down. You guys got dirt on Sandra or something?”_

 _“… Oh. I just… nothing. He just told me she wasn’t worth it. But just between us Paladins…”_ Keith paused, glancing over to her before returning his gaze to the path ahead of them. _“Lance suspects she’s up to something, and not just usual Garrison shady business. He did some spying earlier this morning and he found her sending out some weird transmissions. None of them made sense, and as far as he could tell they weren’t going to any rebel groups.”_

 _“What? Are you saying the Admiral could be a spy?”_ Allura asked, now deadly serious.

 _“That’s what Lance thinks. But why? What could she possibly gain from working for Sendak?”_ Keith demanded.

Pidge swallowed nervously, the fun from earlier completely gone. _“As soon as we get back we need to tell Hunk,_ maybe _Griffin and Veronica.”_

 _“And Shiro and Adam,”_ he added.

 _“Agreed,”_ Allura said.

They spent the rest of their expedition in tense silence. If James Griffin had noticed them talking amongst themselves, he gave no indication of doing so.

Two hours and thirteen minutes later they spotted a faint purple light coming up. Picking up the speed, they broke into a run and all but dove behind two different piles of junk for cover. Not two hundred feet away was the entrance to the Galran base.

 _“This is as close as we’re gonna get. Pidge and I are going in,”_ Keith told James and Allura.

 _“Negative. All routes are obstructed. It’s too well-guarded,”_ Griffin protested.

Keith, predictably, ignored him. _“Lance! Are you ready to cover us when we get inside?”_

 _“Ready to go,”_ came the response.

Pidge reached out to thread her fingers through Kosmo’s thick fur. The weird swooping sensation of space-time collapsing in on itself made the hair on her arms stand straight up, and then they were inside the base.

 _“It’s a cosmic wolf,”_ she heard Allura explain to a probably startled Griffin.

Griffin, surprisingly, seemed more impressed than anything. _“Well damn, I’ve got to get me one of those!”_

She and Keith ran down the violet-lit corridor they had appeared in so they could shelter behind one of the beams that lined the walls.

 _“We need to a port where I can hack in, like a control panel or substation,”_ she told him.

 _“Got it.”_ Keith leapt out from the shadows, and she darted after him.

 _“I’ve got you, Keith. Scanning for hostiles. Sentries on the other side of the East wall,”_ Lance reported.

She and Keith grabbed on to Kosmo and teleported just as the sentries rounded the corner. They reappeared on the other side, out of range of the sentries, and kept going.

_“Lance?”_

_“You’re clear!”_

Pidge had to smile at their total trust in one another. Man, she remembered the good old days when they couldn’t have a complete conversation without getting into a fight. Why they seemed to have disliked each other so much, she had no clue, but if she hadn’t known them for years she never would have guessed that they once got along as well as a wasp nest on fire.

Maybe Hunk would have answers. She reminded herself to ask him later.

“ _Okay, you guys are going to have to take the right tunnel,”_ Lance said as they ran up to a fork in the path. _“Whoa, wait! There are sentries approaching from both tunnels. Hold position.”_

Pidge crouched down against the wall, Kosmo’s bulk shielding her and Keith. The metallic footsteps of the sentries got louder and louder. She tensed, bayard at the ready if it came down to a fight.

_“Coming up to you in three, two, one...”_

They zapped away just as the sentries passed them. Kosmo had taken them further down the hallway, just out of the sentries’ reach. Pidge held her breath as the robots kept marching, and when it became apparent they had not sensed them she released it with a sharp exhale.

 _“Keith, I love your dog,”_ she muttered.

Keith snorted.

They picked up the pace again and Pidge entertained herself by listening to the sniper teams’ chatter over the communication link.

 _“That thing pick up heat signatures?”_ Kinkade was asking Lance.

 _“It actually locks on to their suits’ sonar imaging and renders a 3-D map within a twenty-foot perimeter. It’s cool Paladin stuff,”_ Lance explained.

Pidge almost tripped over her feet. _“Wait, Lance. How’d you find that out?”_

 _“Uh, I know what sonar imaging is, Pidge. Also, I took it apart like fifty times to see how it worked. I was on the physics team back in high school,”_ Lance told her happily. _“One time I built a prototype of a rocket NASA used back in the day to gather water samples from Titan. Granted, it didn’t go very far, but it was still fun.”_

She realized her jaw had dropped. Holy shit, everything she thought she had known about the universe was now false. _“Wait. Wait, you’re_ smart?!”

 _“What?”_ Allura and James yelped in unision.

 _“Excuse me?”_ he spluttered.

 _“Lance is incredibly smart, Pidge, how did you not know this?”_ Keith snapped.

Pidge winced. _“Sorry. I-I just… I dunno.”_

 _“English isn’t my families’ first language. Up until middle school all we spoke was Spanish,”_ Veronica chimed in. _“When Lance started showing interest in the Galaxy Garrison he taught himself English so he could go there one day and be able to converse with the Americans. Then the rest of us ended up speaking English too, since that was all Lance would talk in.”_

 _“He taught himself English?!”_ Pidge felt like she was going to faint.

 _“Yeah I did. Your language sucks, by the way,”_ Lance stated matter-of-factly.

 _“That’s my best friend,”_ Hunk said proudly.

 _“Sorry to break up the fun, ladies and gents, but I’ve got movement to the north,”_ Kinkade announced sternly. _“Drones closing in on your position from the adjacent alley.”_

 _“We’ve been spotted!”_ Allura yelled.

_“Hang tight.”_

Pidge assumed Kinkade had successfully taken out the drones, because the distant sound of laser fire from sentries almost made her jump. _“Shit!”_

Allura grunted. _“We’ve got five hostiles.”_

 _“I’ve got the three on the right,”_ Kinkade claimed.

_“I got the other two!”_

Pidge heard the faint sound of Lance’s high-powered rifle charging up through the comm, and then gunfire from him and Kinkade. The exchange lasted no more than a minute, but it still left Pidge tense with anxiety. There was no guarantee in battle whether everybody would come out okay or not. Once, she had taken out nearly a whole squadron on her own with the Green Lion, only to break her leg after she got too cocky and tried to engage a ground unit. A wing from a Galran fighter fell on her and snapped her femur in three different places.

She was more careful from then on.

 _“Thanks!”_ Allura piped up, and Pidge realized the fight must be over.

 _“No problem!”_ Lance’s voice came from the other end, followed by some muffled giggling from Veronica and Lance cussing in Spanish.

 _“She’s pretty,”_ Veronica sniggered. Lance yelped in horror.

Ahead, Keith tensed up. _“Can we please focus?”_

 _“Not my fault! It’s Veronica!”_ Lance whined.

_“Lance! Kinkade! More sentries incoming!”_

She and Keith had reached the end of a long corridor, with sentries guarding the door that marked the end of the passage. Making sure Keith was watching her, she made a face while gesturing with her right hand, and then stuck out her tongue at him and waved in front of her face before finishing with a thumbs-up.

And yes, she was _totally_ professional, thank you very much.

Keith gave her a matching thumbs-up and teleported away with Kosmo.

_Alright, Pidge. Remember what Grandpa Holt taught you._

She jumped out from cover and started flossing. _“Yoo-hoo! Aaaahhhhhhh! AAAHHHHH!”_

Just as laser fire started raining down around her she screamed and jumped back behind the beam she had been sheltering behind. Right on cue, the big doors the sentries were guarding began to open, revealing Keith and Kosmo.

With a flash of white-blue light, he was suddenly dive-bombing the robots. A black sword flashed violet in the light, and the machine fell apart into several pieces under Keith’s attack.

Pidge whooped and sprinted to catch up with him, her laughter ringing loud inside of her helmet. Kosmo teleported them once more to the inside of the engine room, and she found herself face-to-face with the head supercomputer.

During her years in the war against the Galra, she had become _very_ adept at hacking into their shit. They used the same code for like, everything, which made her job much easier.

Also, she had a handy half-Galran guy with her.

After using Keith’s hand to access the supercomputer she plugged in her jumpdrive and started downloading everything she could get her paws on. _“Downloading intel. Stand by.”_

Keith was more interested in the huge structure in front of them. It was built like a flower with its petals closed, if that flower was several hundred feet tall and the same length in width. “What… is this?”

Pidge closed out of the download window and opened up the weapons programming. When she saw what the window brought up her stomach just about collapsed into a black hole.

_“It’s a zyforge cannon.”_

Keith whipped around to stare at her. _“What?”_

 _“Each base must be building one,”_ she realized, a sense of impending doom making her throat close up.

Keith swallowed and shook his head. Beside him, Kosmo whined softly and bumped his huge head against Keith’s hand.

 _“Lance! How’s everything going up there?”_ he demanded.

 _“Peachy,”_ came the hissed response. _“I’ve got drones coming out of my ass!”_

 _“Our cover’s definitely been blown. Time to roll,”_ Hunk agreed.

 _“Copy that. Veronica, detonate the shit!”_ Lance ordered.

Pidge felt more than heard the explosions coming from several miles away. The bombs would release a transmission that would scramble the programming in the sentries’ head, giving them time to get away.

 _“Everybody, rendezvous at your buggies. We’ve only got a few minutes!”_ she heard Lance snap. _“Go, go, go!”_

Kosmo zapped her and Keith to the outside of the base, and she had never been so happy to see the ruins of her decimated planet. With James and Allura hard on their heels, they made a mad dash for the car. In less than ninety seconds they were hauling ass out of the wreckage and back towards the Galaxy Garrison.

<> 

They went straight from the cars to the debriefing room, where the Galaxy Garrison higher-ups were already waiting for them.

“Well?” Admiral Sandra asked.

Pidge tossed her helmet on to the table. “Sendak has built Zyforge cannons. Our intel indicates that the cannons were just completed, possibly as early as three days ago. They could launch at literally any time.”

“What exactly is a Zyforge cannon?” Iverson rasped.

Shiro squeezed his new robotic fist. “Planet-killers. If these cannons launch and are fully charged, Sendak will be able to destroy Earth in seconds.”

“Ideally, we attack all six bases at once, allowing them no time to stage a counter-attack,” Keith explained. Sitting on his right side, Lance nodded.

“Not possible,” Admiral Sandra growled. “Our forces would be spread too thin.”

“You spread my patience too thin,” Adam muttered under his breath.

“If we had our Lions, it’s definitely possible,” Lance countered.

“How do we retrieve them? They’re hundreds of thousands of miles away,” Keith asked, looking a little worried. There were dark circles under his eyes, Pidge realized with alarm. The guy looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

“Your Lions are orbiting another planet! There’s no way to get you to them,” the Admiral snapped. As usual, she looked like somebody had pissed in her corn flakes during breakfast. “And there are only five Lions!”

“The MFE’s will attack the sixth cannon,” Shiro murmured.

James Griffin perked up before a wave of disappointment crossed his face. “We’d love to, but we don’t have that kind of range.”

“There should be enough phonotonium to give them a boost! If my calculations are correct, the MFE’s will be able to make it there and back with no trouble at all,” Coran claimed.

“As for the Lions, Admiral,” Shiro began. “We don’t need to go to them. They will come to us. They are _alive._ Perhaps not like you and me, but trust me when I say that it’s fully possible to summon them across great distances. I’ve done it before.”

“All the way from Saturn?” Hunk asked in disbelief.

“From anywhere. You’ve been training for this since the very beginning. Each of you has formed a unique and powerful bond with your Lion, and you have to tap into it now to bring them here.” Shiro nodded to the Yellow Paladin.

“Our Lions did come to us when we were lost in space,” Lance mused.

Pidge grinned. The plan could work! “The Lions will have to rendezvous with us at the bases.”

“That will really catch the Galra off-guard,” Hunk laughed. “Can’t wait to see the look on their faces! … Well, assuming the Lions respond to our call. What-what if they don’t come?”

“They’ll come,” Lance said forcefully. Pidge looked over at him in surprise, and the fire in his blue eyes felt like enough to burn the whole planet over again.

“Your kids are pretty cool,” Adam said to Shiro. Shiro rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he gave the other man’s arm a gentle whack.

Keith cracked his knuckles. “We’ll need to strike at the exact same time. When we’re done we form Voltron and get rid of Sendak once and for all.”

James Griffin smiled. “My pilots can transport four of you to the bases before heading out to the sixth cannon.”

“Then I’ll bring Lance to Base One,” Veronica announced. “It’s the closest, so I can do it by ground travel.”

“Then it’s settled. While Veronica drops off Lance at Base One, the MFE pilots will each take a Paladin to another base. They should all reach the drop zone at the exact same time the Lions arrive. Then, the MFE’s will head to the sixth base together.”

With a few war whoops, the meeting disbanded. Pidge eagerly made her way out the door with the other Paladins, but she didn’t miss the unreadable gaze of Admiral Sandra as she tracked them with cold, unforgiving gray eyes.

 


	6. Heart of the Lion, Part 2

Before he could lose Keith, Lance ran as fast as he could to catch up to him, which wasn’t that hard to do. The guy was moving at a half-hearted jog-shuffle that reminded him of an old lady out for a run. He almost looked like he was… in pain?

“Keith!” he yelled.

The Black Paladin stopped and turned to look at him, a smile etching its way on to his face despite the obvious tiredness radiating off him. “Hey, Lance. What’s up?”

“I-I just wanted to ask you if you’re okay. You didn’t seem to be doing so good during the mission. Since we got here, really.”

Lance felt his heart sink as the smile fell off Keith’s face. The lavender stripe up his cheek looked like it was paling in the dim lighting of the Garrison. “Sorry about the mission. It won’t happen again, promise. And… I’m fine. Just… kind of tired.”

“I don’t care about the mission. I care about _you._ And it’s kind of obvious you aren’t feeling so hot,” he pointed out. “You don’t have to tell me right now ‘cause we kinda have to get going, but can we talk later?”

Keith hesitated, dark violet eyes flickering across his face and then down to the floor before meeting his gaze again. “Yeah, okay. Good luck out there, sharpshooter.”

Lance couldn’t help himself; a huge smile spread across his face and he launched himself into Keith’s arms.

“Mm?” Keith squeaked. Lance froze, wondering if he had done the wrong thing, but then he felt Keith’s strong arms wrap tightly around him and pull him even closer.

They stayed like that for a moment, just holding each other for the space of a tiny infinity. Lance buried his face in that thick black hair, inhaling the scent of smoke and steel and feeling his stomach do weird things inside of him.

All too soon, Keith pulled away, and he mumbled something like, “See you,” before running off, this time with a little more pep in his step.

Lance watched after him, still smiling, before a hand on his shoulder made him turn to see his sister looking at him with a smirk on her face. “Ready for action?”

He punched her shoulder, laughing. “You know it!”

Together, they ran for the garage and then into blinding sunlight. It was late afternoon, and the entire Garrison had sprung into high gear, officers rushing around like chickens with their head cut off, engineers doing last-minute checks on the buggies and fighter jets. He spotted James Griffin bouncing around with his fellow pilots and doing stretches.

Veronica ran to her buggy and jumped up into it before extending a hand for Lance to take. He took it, and she pulled up into the cockpit.

Just before he could get strapped in, a familiar voice made him come to a screeching stop.

“Lance!”

He turned around to see Allura on the ground, helmet tucked under her arm and white hair gleaming like fresh snow in the sunlight. The beautiful sky blue of her eyes blended in with the heavens all around him, and for a second, he forgot how to breathe.

“Oh, hi Allura! You good?” he asked. Then he had to clear his throat.

“I-I just wanted to say…” she began, and then he heard Veronica squeak and duck away out of sight. He resisted the urge to smack her.

He was suddenly distracted by the flush of red across Allura’s cheeks, and he almost fell off the dang car.

“I just wanted to say… stay safe out there,” she murmured. She looked up at him with a smile, and he felt his face grow hot.

Lance managed to pull himself back together. “You too, Allura.”

She nodded at him, and maybe the bright-ass desert sun was playing tricks on him, but was that respect he saw on her face?

Well, if he wasn’t a hot dog on a stick. Lance McClain was really moving up in this bitch of a world, huh?

Veronica was there when he turned to get himself situated. She wiggled the frame of her glasses. “Looks like the Princess likes you back, too!”

He squealed so loud some of the officers turned to look at him. “What? That’s crazy. Allura cares about everyone because she’s… just awesome like that!”

“Whatever you say, _hermanito.”_

“I do say! … Wait, what do you mean, ‘too’?”

“Just get in the car, Lance.”

They got buckled up and ready to go. When one of the commanders gave the signal and dropped the shield, they were off.

Lance had to give his sister credit- she could haul _ass_ in the car. That kind of surprised him, given how nervous she was when she first started driving back in Cuba. She had hit a curb more than once and ran over a squirrel, which Lance had never let her live down.

 _“Alright, Paladins. Our window of opportunity is razor-thin.”_ Shiro’s voice came in through his helmet. _“With the element of surprise, we can get the advantage. Good luck, everyone.”_

 _“And don’t die,”_ Adam added. Lance burst out laughing when he heard Shiro sigh in resignation. Good Lord, he loved that man. He still couldn’t believe that Shiro, well. Shiro had a _boyfriend._ His hero, the dude he had looked up to since he first started getting into space, was like _him._ It made him want to cry with joy.

Well. Shiro had an _ex-boyfriend,_ at least. That guy couldn’t catch a break, could he?

He forced himself to chase those thoughts away in favor of reaching out to Red.

The title of Red Paladin had come to rest on his shoulders since Keith had become the Black Lion’s pilot, and while he had missed Blue a ton at first (he still did, but the fact that Allura was piloting her made him feel a whole lot better) he had come to _love_ being the second-in-command. Red was nothing like sweet, reliable Blue, but it was _good._ Red burned in the back of his mind like a bonfire, the protective shield against the rest of the universe that tried to kill him so often. She reminded him of a mother’s wrath. In a way, piloting the Red Lion had helped him feel less homesick.

Another part of him reveled in the power, although he had felt guilty about it for the longest time. It was _Lance_ who was giving orders now. The spite that had built up in him from everybody doubting him and what he could do unleashed itself as soon as he stepped into the scarlet-hued cockpit. He was ferocious as Red herself, untapped potential and strength all wrapped up in his one-hundred- and fifty-pound frame. For the first time in his life, Lance McClain felt _unstoppable._

Even with all of that, though, there were times when he would lie awake at night and dream of being the Black Paladin.

He wasn’t sure what called him so strongly to the head of Voltron. It wasn’t just the glory; he wasn’t that shallow. No, something else pushed him to the biggest Lion, something he could never put a finger on. Lance didn’t know why, but he had wanted to pilot Black the moment he laid eyes on him more than he had wanted anything in his life.

He still did.

The world around him fell away, and the desert and approaching Galran base became the star-flecked void of the astral realm.

“Lance?”

Lance almost jumped out of his skin. He looked over to see Keith, his form outlined with stardust. “Uh, Keith? What are you doing here?”

“Uh…” he pointed upwards. Lance followed his finger to the massive head of the Black Lion.

“…What the heck am _I_ doing here?” he asked, but when he looked back Keith was gone.

Alarm tore through him, and he whirled around to look for the boy. The stars seemed to grow brighter and brighter until he was nearly blinded by their brilliance.

He squinted through the haze, desperate. “Keith? _Keith!”_

A deafening rumble made his teeth chatter with the vibrations. He turned to see the Black Lion’s yellow eyes set ablaze, and they pierced into his very soul.

Then, without warning, he was back in the buggy in the desert, gasping for air.

Veronica looked over at him, eyes wide. “Lance?”

“I’m okay!” he wheezed, but then the ground shook as a laser blast impaled the ground right next to the vehicle.

“We’ve been spotted!” Veronica shouted. Above, Galran fighters swooped down to greet them like angry crows. One took another shot at them, and she swerved just in time to avoid another burst of fire. The buggy nearly toppled over from the momentum and sent Lance into the door.

“Watch out, okay! Be careful!” he yelled.

“I know!” Veronica screeched.

She put her foot to the floor, and the speedometer passed eighty, ninety, one-hundred. Lance clenched his fists into the armrests and prayed.

_Dear God, please don’t let me die today, because we still haven’t saved Earth and I’d really like to be around to help make that happen. Also, please help Veronica drive safely out of this mess in one piece. While I’m at it, could you please give Sendak a wedgie? Thanks. Love, Lance Mc-_

_“Lance, where are you? Can you hear me?”_ Shiro called.

Lance didn’t bother to answer, because the Galran fighters had caught up to them. “Veronica! _Look out!”_

One second they were driving on the ground, the next they were flying through the air at over one-hundred miles an hour.

The last thing he heard was his friends screaming.

<> 

_“… are you there?”_

_“Lance, where are you, buddy?”_

_“Lance, can you hear us?”_

_“Lance?”_ His mind cleared enough to recognize the last voice coming in through his comm. _“Lance,_ _come in!”_

Keith.

The name formed on his lips as his vision returned. He curled one hand into a fist to brace against the throbbing pain that laced sharply through his body as all of his senses returned. An agonized groan escaped him as he tried to move.

Okay, did he have all his limbs? He wiggled a leg, then the other, and managed to twitch both arms.

Good, he still had everything. The light hurt like hell, though. _Definitely concussed._

Lance braced both hands underneath him, and with a few pained gasps, pushed himself upright. His left side throbbed every time he breathed. _Cracked or broken ribs._

An explosion not too far away brought him back. Quite suddenly, Lance remembered who he was and what was going on. _Veronica._

“Veronica? _Veronica!”_ he shrieked. He looked around, saw the buggy lying on its side, and then the still form of his sister beside it.

_“No!”_

“Augh!” He pushed himself to his feet, working through the discomfort of his battered body, and stumbled over to Veronica. She did not stir when he rolled her over. For a long, horrible moment Lance thought that his sister was dead.

Just as he was about to give in to despair, blue eyes cracked open, and Veronica let out a groan.

“Hey _! Estás bíen,”_ he breathed, relief surging through him like an ocean wave. _“Estás bíen!”_

There was no time to celebrate. Sentries from just beyond the ridge opened fire on them, and Lance had to activate his shield to protect them from getting shot. He slammed it into the ground to create cover and then shot back with his blaster. Several fireballs appeared as his lasers hit their marks, but more just appeared and picked up where their fallen brothers left off. Behind him, Veronica pulled herself to her knees and made herself as small as possible.

A shadow passed over them, and Lance looked up in a kind of resigned terror as a Galran fighter dove down to greet them. It’s wing cannons powered up with hellish violet light, and it blasted the ground around them and made him taste metal in his mouth. With his best battle-cry ringing inside of his helmet, he dove through the smoke and dust, came up to one knee, and shot at the fighter for all he was worth.

The lasers pinged harmlessly off the ship no matter how high he cranked the power level on his weapon. As it got closer and closer, Lance finally understood that he wasn’t going to stop it, and he lowered the blaster.

Time slowed.

Lance wasn’t a stranger to death. He had actually died before, fried alive in the cockpit of the Red Lion before Allura brought him back. But now that he actually had time to think things over, it was a lot scarier.

He was just nineteen. He wasn’t ready to go.

But it looked like it was going to happen anyways.

The air left his lungs as he exhaled, his eyelids sliding shut. The shadow of the fighter passed over him like an eclipse. Every muscle in his body relaxed.

_Goodbye._

An enormous crash that shook the Earth almost knocked him flat on his ass. Veronica gasped as the dust cloud cleared, revealing the lean, metallic body of the Red Lion. She looked down at him with an aura of what felt like exasperation, the bonfire-bond in the back of his mind flickering irritably.

Red threw back her head and let out a roar that made Lance’s ears ring.

Veronica’s jaw dropped. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates. “She’s… she’s beautiful!”

“She sure is,” he agreed. “Come on, you two are gonna be _great_ friends.”

The Lion lowered her head and opened her mouth to let them in. Lance supported Veronica as they hobbled in together, and when they got to the cockpit he helped her buckle in to the rear bench. As far as he could tell she had broken her collarbone and possibly her arm, even though she refused to so much as admit she was in pain.

Veronica snorted at him. “I know what you’re thinking. First rule of the apocalypse: never admit weakness.”

“You’re impossible.”

“You love me.”

“Unfortunately.” Lance sat down gingerly in the pilot’s seat, gritting his teeth as his ribs protested against the movement. “This is Red Lion, checking in with the Garrison!”

It was Adam who answered him, voice heavy with relief. _“Lance!_ Masha Allah, _you’re alive! Takashi and I… when your communication link crapped out…”_

“Sorry ‘bout that, Sarge, we got blown up by a Galra fighter,” Lance explained.

_“Show them who’s boss, kid.”_

“Yessir!” They leapt into the sky, with Hunk and Pidge hyping him up once he went online with the rest of the Paladins.

For five minutes or so, everything went _amazing._ He and Veronica blew up a good part of Base One _(adios, putas!)_ and dealt heavy damage to the outer shell of the structure. At first, the fighters weren’t a problem; a Voltron Lion was more than capable of taking on an entire fleet of the little buggers. Then, the Galra brought out the _big_ guns.

Literally.

It was Hunk who noticed first. _“Guys! I’m taking heavy fire over here!”_

 _“Something’s wrong!”_ Allura shouted.

“These aren’t normal base defenses! Pidge, Keith, are you two okay?” Lance asked.

Pidge was swearing up a storm. _“I’m pinned down!”_

 _“Just do what you have to! We can’t let those cannons fire!”_ Keith yelled hoarsely.

 _“They were ready for us,”_ Lance heard Shiro say disbelievingly.

A little voice in the back of his mind told him who might be responsible for that. He didn’t want to believe it, but from what he had seen over the past few days at the Garrison he knew he couldn’t ignore the facts.

 _“Focus on the Zyforge cannons,”_ Keith ordered.

 _“Base Six is launching!”_ It was James Griffin, sounding like he was about to panic.

With a jolt, Lance realized that the “petals” of the structure were opening up, revealing a narrow column shaped like a heavyset spear. He knew what it was. “Oh, _díos mio.”_

Veronica made a choked noise in the back of her throat.

 _“I can’t get to the cannon. There’s too many of them!”_ Pidge reported.

 _“Same here,”_ Hunk added frantically.

 _“I’m falling back!”_ Allura told them. She sounded worn out from all of the fighting.

Keith was furious. _“Sendak must have known we were coming! But how?!”_

“It’s the Admiral!” Lance snarled. He felt his blood run hot and cold at the same time. “Keith, remember those weird transmissions from several days ago? The ones I caught Sandra sending out? I bet my left nut she was sending them to Sendak!”

 _“No,”_ the Black Paladin muttered. It wasn’t defiance of Lance’s statement, just something said out of betrayal and grief.

“Admiral Sandra? Lance, there has to be a mistake. She would die in a heartbeat if it meant saving Earth!” Veronica cried.

Lance shook his head. “I don’t doubt that. But the Garrison’s been covering for her, I just know it. We have to stop her and Sendak.”

 _“What do you have in mind?”_ Keith demanded.

“We take the fight to home base. Defeating Sendak is our last hope.” Lance looked to the sky, where the cannon was making its way up and out of the atmosphere. Man, he was really giving the orders here, huh? A bubble of frenzied determination rose up in his gut. It overwhelmed him, making ice water shoot up his spine. He punched in the frequency to contact the fighter pilots and released a shaky breath. “MFE’s, return to the Garrison. We’ll take it from here.”

 _“Rodger that,”_ James muttered. Ha ha.

“Paladins, regroup!” he ordered. Pulling back, he pushed the Red Lion into a steep climb, quickly overtaking the cannon and making Veronica squeal in shock. Out of all the Lions, Red was easily the fastest. She could overtake even the swift Green Lion in a fair race.

And so it was him that first broke free from Earth’s gravity first and into the starry void of space. Not a few seconds after, he saw the Green Lion and the Blue Lion approaching him at several tens of thousands miles per hour. He knew Keith and Hunk had to be somewhere nearby, as he felt the tingle of their psychic connection begin to form like it always did just before they formed Voltron. It never failed to make him shiver in awe.

_“Form Voltron!”_

They came together with all the chaos and passion of a newborn star. Once the transformation was complete they were streaking towards the warships that dotted the region were space met atmosphere, where Sendak and his fleet were waiting for them.

Sendak was as punctual as ever. Before Keith could even order anything a beam of pure energy burst from a zyforge cannon, bouncing off the shields that littered the newly formed battlefield and connecting with the others. All across different parts of Earth, the Zyforge cannons would be making minute adjustments to put out the maximum amount of energy they possibly could. On one of those ships, Sendak and Admiral Sandra would be watching as the beams raced towards Voltron at nearly the speed of light.

Lance didn’t even have time to groan. _Not this again._

And then the beams hit them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the Red Lion was revealed to be male, but I decided that I like Mama!Red better. It fits better, in my head at least. Red, Blue, and Green can be ladies, Yellow's a boy, and the Black Lion is nonbinary because they're too awesome to be associated with gender structures.   
> Also can you guys tell I like writing Lance the best? I love my boy. I also love my boy giving orders and kicking ass. And being bi as hell.


	7. Trial by Fire

“… I delivered you the Lions, as you requested. Now it’s time you uphold your end of the bargain. Hand over the Paladins over to me and leave Earth.”

It was to the muffled sound of Admiral Sandra’s voice that drug Keith back to the hellish world of consciousness. He gritted his teeth as his sluggish mind processed what she was saying. Oh, he and Lance had totally called it. That _snake._ God, once he got his hands on her she was going to regret the day she ever got her grubby hands on the rank of Admiral-

“That won’t be happening.”

There was Sendak, not following up on whatever dumbass promise the Admiral had him make. Wow, what a shocker. It’s like he’s the bloodthirsty leader of the most awful bunch of Galra in the universe or something.

Sandra stiffened with rage at Sendak’s side. He had to give her credit, though, she didn’t let herself show any sign of fear. “We made a deal!”

“Throw her in the bridge cells with the Paladins,” Sendak ordered before giving more instructions to his crew on what to do with the Zyforge cannons. The Admiral hissed as she was dragged off by a sentry, helpless to do anything but watch as everything she worked so hard for fall apart in front of her very eyes.

 _If only we had the time to tell Shiro,_ was Keith’s last thought before he fell back into oblivion.

<> 

When he woke back up he was in a cell.

 _“Hello?!”_ He slammed his fists hard against the door. Shit, shit, shit, where was his team? What was happening? Was Earth already done for? “Lance! Hunk? Pidge! Allura!”

Backing up, he prepared to ram the door down with everything he had, but when his bayard failed to appear he knew something was wrong.

 _“I’m here.”_ It was Lance, and Keith had never heard a sweeter sound in his life.

 _“Me too,”_ Hunk added, sounding like he was still in pain.

 _“Present,”_ Pidge piped up. _“We’ve lost an hour in here already, before anybody asks. Allura, you there?”_

Allura groaned. _“Unfortunately. What… what happened? We’re on Sendak’s ship, aren’t we?”_

“Yep.” Keith let himself fall back against the wall and slide down to sit on the cold metal floor. “Admiral Sandra… Lance, you were right about her. She sold us out.”

 _“How could she?”_ Pidge snarled, furious.

Keith was silent at that. He didn’t know, either. All he could hope that the woman had done it because she truly thought it was the right thing to do, but somehow, he doubted it.

“He told me that if he had the Lions he’d leave Earth, but he lied to me.”

Keith turned his head around so fast something in his neck cracked. He wondered for a brief moment if he was tripping on something (wouldn’t be the first time), but sure enough, there was the devil herself at the other end of the cell. Jesus, he didn’t even know she was there.

“I wanted to protect my people. He said that after the exchange was made he’d even help rebuild Earth. We could be a part of the Empire,” Admiral Sandra told him. She turned to meet his glare, eyebrows furrowed. “Earth would have been saved.”

Keith laughed harshly. “Guys, you’ll never believe who’s in my cell with me.”

 _“Yooooo!”_ Lance yelled as Hunk and Pidge started swearing enough to make Zarkon’s ears bleed.

“So not only were you going to hand the Lions over to one of the biggest threats this universe has ever faced, you were going to sell Earth into a tyrannical rule at the hands of Sendak.” Keith shook his head.

“The Galaxy Garrison and the Galra aren’t strangers, boy. Why do you think this little blue dot escaped invasion for so long?” Sandra asked dryly. She looked regretful, but not entirely for herself. “After such a long collaboration you would think both parties would have felt honored enough to keep their end of the bargain.”

“Aw, are you hurt ‘cause your friend decided he didn’t want to play with you at recess anymore? Every word out of your mouth makes my brain hurt, _Admiral._ You’re going to tell me what Sendak’s plan is. _Now,”_ Keith growled.

Sandra shrugged. “Sendak is currently moving the Zyforge cannons into position right over the Galaxy Garrison. He’s going to destroy Earth, starting from the strongest resistance on the planet so that the weaker groups know that there’s no hope left before they die.”

“You’re wrong in the head.”

“It’s what Sendak told me. Take it or leave it.”

Keith wished he had his sword so he could run it through the woman. “Did you really want to save Earth?”

“I did. That, I can promise you.” Sandra nodded to him. “I know I’m going to die today, and I’ll die the most hated person on the planet. But if you and your little friends can get us out of here before we all get killed I’ll do my best to help where I can.”

“… Fine.”

<> 

It was another hour or so before anything happened, and Keith was about to go back to sleep when the entire battleship shook around them.

He scrambled to his feet. “What was that?”

 _“My Dad… he must have been able to launch the Atlas!”_ Pidge shouted joyfully.

“We need to get out there! They’re not going to be able to win this fight alone,” Keith said desperately. Commander Holt had been able to launch that big-ass hunk of metal? How long would that thing even last?

 _“Guys guys guys, I have a thought,”_ Hunk said. _“Remember when we called the Lions to us all the way from Saturn? Why can’t we do that now? They might be able to break us out!”_

 _“Sounds good in theory, but calling them to us and having them break us out are two totally different things,”_ Pidge remarked.

Hunk huffed. _“I’m not saying it’ll be easy. I’m not even saying that it’s possible. But we have to try, unless somebody has a better idea! I’m not dying here without seeing my family again!”_

The determination in the Yellow Paladin’s voice was the kick in the ass he needed. _“We’ve done it before. We can do it again, with a little extra favor on the side.”_

“What’s going on?” Sandra snapped.

“Oh, shut up.”

 _“Paladins,”_ Lance murmured, his tone low and soothing. Keith felt his blood pressure drop back to normal. He felt like a gentle ocean wave had washed over him, cool and sweet. He recalled how well the Red Paladin had taken over when he had almost crumpled under the pressure of trying to save their home, how strong and determined he was. Lance was a leader through and through. _“Close your eyes. Reach out to your Lions and remember the bond you have with them. We’ve been through more than anybody could have ever imagined, and we’ll go through the impossible again.”_

Keith swallowed and exhaled. The dark starry place where Black was waited for him when he reached out, and they connected in a flurry of energy and shadows. The Black Lion rumbled to him deep enough to make his teeth chatter.

He never wanted to be the leader. But he would do it if he had to.

_One last time._

A thick gasp escaped him as the voice spoke. It was neither male nor female, young or old, not quiet but not loud. It weighed as much as a supermassive black hole and pulsed with the heartbeat of the universe itself.

“Black, is that you? What do you mean?” he asked, heart hammering in his throat, but Black never answered. He felt them come alive with his own quintessence. Then, he briefly saw the world through Black’s eyes, and they launched.

“The Atlas, they need our help!” Allura called, and Keith saw what she meant. Through the Black Lion’s vision, he saw the great white ship was being overtaken by the fighters.

The sentries’ footsteps clanged loudly against the metal floor, and before Keith could stop her Sandra was on her feet and banging against the door. “Help! Get me out of here, please! I know about the Earth’s ship. It has a weakness.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Keith hissed.

She gave him a look like, _Shut up and trust me._

“What did you say?” the Galran officer asked slowly.

“I helped build that ship. If you were to take me to Commander Sendak, I could tell him where to attack,” Sandra explained sharply.

Keith then understood what she was going for and readied himself.

 The second the door slid open the Admiral threw herself on the sentry with a shriek. His vision flickered from his own to Black’s and back to normal so quickly he could barely function. He saw Sandra grab the sentry’s blaster and duck into cover down the corridor.

Over the complete sensory overload he heard Pidge yelling at Shiro to not fire on the ship yet, dammit, they were still on it! Well, their bodies were. Shiro and Adam cheered them on, pride in every word they said even though Keith could barely make out what they were saying.

Hearing the voices of the two men who had raised him gave him the strength to pull his shit together. He still could barely move, but he managed to raise his head to watch the human and Galra fight to the death. 

Sandra gave a thick gasp as a laser tore through her arm, forming a perfect burnt circle in the limb. It was a horrifying sight. The fire had burned through half of her bone, exposing the marrow and blood that gushed out into her uniform. She fell to the ground, still stubbornly clinging to the trigger.

“You’ve doomed yourself, Admiral!” the Galran officer laughed. He shot her again and again as she pulled herself back to her feet, burning off an ear, going through her hip and then her abdomen. Keith watched as she braced herself against the beam that served as her cover, tears streaming down her face.

For a brief second, they made eye contact. Everything that needed to be said was said. She raised her ruined arm in a trembling salute, showing respect to him for the first time. Keith knew what she was about to do, but he couldn’t make himself turn away.

Admiral Sandra _screamed,_ shot violently at the Galran officer, and charged. The officer barely had time to flinch before the woman was on him like a panther. They fell to the floor together, Sandra’s hands around his throat.

“We could have been great, your kind and mine,” she gargled through the blood pouring out of her mouth. “Now look at us. Both dying like dogs on the road.”

She grabbed the blaster she had tossed aside and slammed it through the Galra’s eye socket. Until he stopped howling and twitching, she kept it there, rooted in spot like the fabled sword in the stone. When he stopped she fell to the side and didn’t move again, still half-draped across the Galra like a pair of lovers.

He didn’t have time to go to her. The Black Lion burst through the floor with a deafening roar, destroying the entire thing with their massive head.

One by one, the rest of his team shoved their way out of their cells to stare at the scene before them. The rest of the Lions would be here soon, he could feel it.

“She died doing the right thing,” he told them.

They stared at her for a long moment before Hunk nodded sharply and turned away. Pidge followed his example. Allura glared at Sandra’s dead body, and Keith wondered if she hated the old officer so must because she gave up her entire race to the one that wiped out her own.

Lance came over and rearranged Sandra’s arms so they rested peacefully over her chest. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he did the same with the Galran officer.

“… I dunno. It just felt right,” he mumbled when Keith gave him a look of surprise.

He smiled. “It was, Lance. It really was.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short but since I only do one POV per chapter... oh well. 
> 
> I don't like Sandra but I decided giving her a more dignified death than she had in canon seemed right. She died a bitch, but she was a bad bitch who took out a Galra all by herself. And yeah, Keith couldn't help because Black was mind-fucking him the whole time.


	8. Lions' Pride, Part 1

The first thing the Paladins did once they got into their Lions was form Voltron to help defend the Atlas, which Shiro appreciated immensely. The past several hours of his life still didn’t feel real to him, much less the fact he was now the _captain_ of the whole ship! When the seemingly unanimous agreement between the commanders had been made, Adam, Sam, Veronica, and a younger weapons technician and navigator named Curtis ran off to grab wine to celebrate.

“Does this count as DUI? Well, FUI?” Adam asked while Curtis slammed down his entire glass at once.

“It’s the apocalypse, Sarge! Drink and be merry,” Curtis insisted cheerfully. Shiro had always liked Curtis. He was pretty much a goofy ray of sunshine, which was a breath of fresh air in the constant cryptic, gung-ho atmosphere of the Galaxy Garrison. Anybody who could keep their sense of humor after surviving training with Commander Iverson was alright in his book, even if he did once catch Curtis fall out of the ceiling because a cat got stuck in the vents and he wanted to pet it.

Adam snorted and held up his mug. “To being happy and hopefully surviving the apocalypse! And Takashi.”

“Thanks, Adam,” he deadpanned.

Curtis sipped his wine and eyeballed the incoming Galra battleships. “Looks like somebody’s not happy they got welcomed to the party.”

“Then let’s send them an invite, shall we?” Veronica asked.

“Once Voltron rendezvous with us,” Shiro promised as he punched in the frequency to contact the huge mech. “Welcome back, Paladins!”

 _“It’s good to be back,”_ Hunk agreed. _“Well, back in our bodies.”_

 _“You can say that again,”_ Keith grunted.

“MFE pilots, what’s your status?” Shiro asked as he opened up the radio to encompass all of the communication links.

 _“Power’s dropping. We’re returning to the Atlas to recharge,”_ James Griffin reported.

“Copy that.”

A few lasers and cannon blasts hit the outside of the Atlas, causing it to shiver. Shiro slammed down a shot and watched as Voltron began decimating the Galra fleet. “Coran, adjust our heading to narrow our surface area for incoming attacks. Commander Holt, what’s the status of the Zyeforge cannons?”

_“According to their projected trajectory they’ve started moving together. But their convergent point is…”_

The commander’s voice trailed off, and Shiro stiffened in alarm. “Sam? Sam, what is it?”

 _“I know what Sendak is doing. He’s going to converge the beams to make one massive amplified emission of lethal radiation!”_ the commander exclaimed.

Shiro blinked. “Is that even possible?”

 _“Yes! I know this because I gave them the technology. When I was enslaved, the Galra had me working on particle emission amplification. I’m sending you the Zyforge cannons’ coordinates.”_ Sam’s voice was thick with guilt, and Shiro swallowed back his desire to comfort the old man despite the fact it was in no way his fault. That would have to wait until later.

 _“This is a simulation I’ve run based on their current trajectory,”_ he continued. _“It leads to a single point in space. Once they’re in position, their individual beams will merge together, exponentially increasing their destructive force. It will be powerful enough to completely vaporize Earth._

He felt his blood run cold.

 _“We are not about to let him do that!”_ Hunk said icily. _“What do we do?”_

 _“Should we go after the Zyforge cannons? The Lions may not be able to defeat them all in time,”_ Allura asked.

 _“If even two of those beams connect it will have the power to destroy Earth,”_ said Sam.

 _“We know they’re being controlled by Sendak. We should target him first!”_ Lance suggested.

Keith grunted in agreement. _“Good idea, Lance. Let’s go, team!”_

Voltron surged forward to attack the battleships once more, and Shiro didn’t see the massive beam of violet light until it was too late.

Adam gasped as Voltron was engulfed. The Paladin’s yells of pain cut off as they managed to roll out of it and face the direction of their attack.

 _“What the hell was that?”_ Lance demanded.

Another beam shot up, bounced off a nearby satellite, and smashed into Voltron. Shiro’s fists clenched as he heard Pidge squeal.

 _“We’re under attack by one of those bases that launched a Zyforge cannon,”_ Allura concluded.

 _“They must have been designed to defend the cannons after they launched!”_ Pidge growled.

 _“Shield!”_ Keith barked. Voltron raised the device just in time to parry off another blast. That worked until the remaining battleships started firing at them as well, surrounding them on all sides. _Oh, shit._

 _“We’re being attacked by all angles!”_ Pidge told Keith.

 _“Do we fall back?”_ Hunk asked nervously.

_“I…I-I-!”_

_“No.”_ Lance’s voice broke in, strong and calm. _“We’re too close to retreat. Pidge, what’s the status of Voltron’s integrity?”_

_“We can’t take any more shots from those cannons.”_

_“Then we have to get in closer. We’ll make them fire on their own ships if they want to attack us!”_ Lance ordered.

“Lance, isn’t _Keith_ supposed to be giving the orders?” Shiro asked, a bit annoyed. Jeez, this kid had been on _fire_ since he got back from the astral realm. How long had this been going on for?

 _“Are you kidding me? He can give all the orders he wants! I’m… I…”_ Keith got out.

Shiro felt his brows furrow and his mouth dry. Was something wrong with Keith? “Keith, are you okay? You sound like you’re about to collapse.”

 _“We’ll talk about this later! Lance, you’re in charge,”_ Keith wheezed.

_“I am? Keith, you-“_

_“Do it!”_

Adam and Shiro exchanged scared looks. Curtis was just shaking his head, but before Shiro could ask him what he was thinking another battleship blew up. The shockwave rippled through the Atlas and made everybody stumble. One poor officer felt out of her chair with a squeak.

 _“Sendak is destroying his own ships to get to us!”_ Allura spat in disgust.

“Yeah, it’s almost like he’s an evil bastard with a crowbar up his ass,” Adam muttered.

Voltron darted out of the way of another volley of attacks from the battleships and smacked right into another beam from a ground cannon. Shiro yelled in fright. Deep inside, the part that still held traces of the Black Lion’s essence, he began to understand. It had happened to him before after he… well, the _clone_ returned to Voltron. He didn’t want to believe it, but the more the battle progressed and thought about Keith’s behavior the last few weeks… it made sense. His heart sunk to his feet and fell out of the Atlas.

Keith was losing his bond with the Black Lion.

A fighter smashed into the helm, shocking Shiro out of his thoughts and almost throwing him off his feet. Adam rammed himself into his shoulder to keep him steady, and he grabbed the other man’s arm for support.

“Shit, I need another drink,” he muttered. Shiro almost laughed despite himself.

“We’ve got to get to Sendak!” Coran cried.

“Voltron is pinned down,” Veronica told Shiro, blue eyes wide and troubled.

“Griffin, what’s your status?” Adam asked.

_“The MFE’s are nearly charged. Whatever is powering the Atlas is incredible!”_

“I see the makings of another fellow scientist when I see one,” Curtis murmured thoughtfully, eyes crinkling with amusement.

Shiro rolled his eyes. Nerds. “We need you and your team back in the fight! Put in the coordinates I send you and start taking out those air cannons.”

_“Yessir!”_

After the MFE’s departed they went through another wave of attacks. Several alarms went off. Down the hall, Shiro could hear officers yelling to each other as they tried to keep the situation under control.

“We’ve sustained heavy structural damage to the starboard valve!” Veronica yelled over the chaos.

“Cannons are recharging. We only have forty-five percent,” Iverson growled back. Shiro almost groaned when he realized they couldn’t really do anything at the moment.

Sam’s link crackled on the radio. _“Shiro, the Zyforge cannons are almost in position. By my calculations we’re not going to get to Sendak in time!”_

Aw, crap. “Paladins! You have to stop your attack!”

 _“What?”_ Keith yelled.

 _“We need to attack the Zyforge cannons,”_ Lance told him, putting two and two together. 

“Exactly.”

 _“Okay, but how? I’m not sure one Lion could take one out alone,”_ Lance explained.

 _“Is there any way we could block the beams?”_ Keith asked.

 _“We’d be annihilated,”_ Pidge refused.

 _“Hey! What about those reflective plates they used to send the beams around Earth?”_ Hunk put out enthusiastically.

_“Perfect! Great idea, Hunk.”_

Shiro managed a smile. “Good luck, Paladins.”

“And don’t die,” Adam added, as usual.

Pidge started talking about the plates to the other Paladins while Shiro started diverting more power to the weapons systems for Iverson to use. As he did that, he caught Curtis’s eye.

“He’s a good leader,” he noted casually.

“Yeah, he’ll be alright once this is all over,” Shiro said proudly.

“Oh, yeah. Keith’s pretty cool too.”

He stared into blank space at that. Curtis turned away and went back to his station.

 _“… Keith and Lance, you’ll take the farthest one. Once you get your plate, head along on the indicated course I’ve sent you. Hunk, get the one over Australia. Allura and I will get the one right over there!”_ Pidge decided.

_“Woo!”_

The Paladins zipped off to get the plates. Meanwhile, Griffin let him know that the cannons had been neutralized and that they were heading off to the next one.

 _“We have a fire in the plasma alternator! Activating fire retardants”_ Sam called in.

“Veronica, what’s the status of the shielding system?” Shiro asked. _Please be good news for once, please be good news…_

“I’m trying!” she yelped.

 _Dammit._ “Keep working! Coran, adjust our heading five-point-three-eight.”

Like a game of chess, the Atlas slid into its next position. A battleship nearby did the same. Several of its fighters returned to their bay for repairs. Another group blew by the Atlas, no doubt heading for the Lions.

 _“How much time do we have left?”_ Pidge asked.

 _“Two minutes, fifteen seconds!”_ Sam responded worriedly.

_“It’s going to be tight! Hang on!”_

The Atlas received heavy fire to the starboard side. Shiro grunted. Holy shit, they were really playing chicken with death here. “Iverson, fire cannons on starboard! Keep them away!”

“Veronica, I’ve diverted power from the generators to the shielding,” Adam shouted over.

“Thanks!”

“Coran, bearings! Seven-point-two!” Shiro ordered again.

 _“Nice,”_ he heard Curtis mutter to Adam. Adam said something in agreement, but whatever his response what got drowned out by the distant boom of the cannons firing.

“Galra cruiser destroyed!” Iverson rasped in triumph. “Wait, more incoming!”

“We can’t handle many more blasts,” Shiro realized. How long had they been doing this? It had to have been five hours or so. For all of Atlas’s incredible power, he knew that they couldn’t keep this up forever.

“The shielding system is back online!” Veronica whooped, interrupting his thoughts. A field of orange spread past the windows.

 _Oh, hallelujah._ “How much time before the Zyforge cannons fire?”

_“Any second now!”_

He looked out to see the Black Lion pushing one of the plates up to a cruiser. _You can do it, Keith. I know you can._

 _“We’re almost in position!”_ Lance told him.

Shiro could practically feel the power crackling through space and air as the Zyforge cannons powered up. He tasted metal in his mouth. Every single hair on his body stood straight up. From the look on the others’ faces, he wasn’t the only one who was experiencing it.

_“In five, four, three-!”_

_“Don’t look at it! It’ll blind you!”_ Sam yelled.

Shiro turned away into Adam’s shoulder. Veronica hit the deck. Officers of all ranks covered their faces with their arms and screwed their eyes shut as tight as they would go.

There wasn’t supposed to be any sound in space, but Shiro could have sworn he heard the bone-rattling _BOOM!_ that shook everything. One of the Galran battleships keeled over and exploded. The shockwave rippled out and knocked the Atlas around a bit, like waves rocking a boat on a stormy ocean.  

Luckily, that wasn’t what was important. When the light coming in from the windows receded from absolutely blinding to moderately bright, he looked to see the beams shooting off into space and not towards Earth.

_Hell yeah! Sweet baby Jesus, I am never asking for anything again in my life! Ever!_

His joy was short-lived, however, once Sam called in. _“The Paladins have the plates in position, but they were designed to only reflect a short burst! They_ will _fracture under a continued blast!”_

Shiro swore. “We need to take out Sendak, now!”

“But we can’t get through the cruiser blockade he’s created!” Coran protested.

Another hit from something shook the Atlas. The ruined battleship from earlier was making its last stand and firing at their ship with everything it had.

“We need a new plan,” he muttered. “Sam! What if someone was to infiltrate Sendak’s ship and get access to its crystal? Could the cannons be disrupted?”

“What?!” Adam screeched.

 _“Infiltrate Sendak’s ship?”_ Sam spluttered.

“Would. It. Work?” he demanded.

_“It could work. But you’d need a communication device to link to the Atlas so we can hack their system.”_

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Shiro decided.

“Oh, _hell_ no, Takashi. I lost you once and I am _not_ losing you again!” Adam cried.

Shiro turned to him, forcing down the grief that welled up within him. How many times was he going to have to break Adam’s heart? “I’m sorry, Adam. But we have to save Earth, no matter the cost. You and Coran are in charge until I get back. I’m going in.”

He turned and sprinted out of the control room before Adam could say anything else.

<> 

Half-running, half-tripping, he pulled on his spacesuit and helmet just in time to get into the airlock. The young cadet monitoring it stared at him with wide eyes as he gave her the go-ahead, and she seemed almost reluctant to drop the chamber into a vacuum so he could launch.

When there was no more air pressure he pressed his hand against the keypad. With a lurch, the airlock doors slowly slid open to reveal the hellish battlefield beyond, specked with fallen cruisers and debris from both sides. The orange forcefield was all that stood between him and it, casting the view into an orange haze. Earth shone brightly below, a beacon of hope and courage to all that called the blue planet their home, but the beautiful sight was ruined by the violet lasers streaking by the Atlas as they raced towards their targets.

One of the panels on the forcefield disappeared, giving him a hole to go through. Shiro took a deep breath and braced himself before he grabbed the frame of the airlock and leapt out into space. His booster rockets fired, and he was off.

Bouncing from one piece of debris to another, he made his way over to the Galra cruiser Sendak was commanding. If he had his Paladin suit he would have just zipped right over, but he had forgotten how clunky human technology was, even with the Altean advancements Sam had made. Next time, he vowed to bring his own suit so he wouldn’t have to hop around in space like a frickin’ frog.

He heard Hunk yelling in panic. The plates were rupturing from the force of the beams and wouldn’t hold for much longer.

 _“Just hold on for a little longer, we have a plan!”_ Coran pleaded.

 _“We can do this! Keep the paws of your Lions spread wide against the plates to distribute the stress,”_ Lance ordered.

 _“Copy that!”_ Pidge yelped.

Shiro forced his booster rockets to the highest power possible as he raced towards Sendak’s cruiser. God, they were just _kids._ If he didn’t succeed, they would die, and it would be all his fault. _C’mon, guys. You can do this._

The dark metal of the battleship loomed closer and closer, and he dodged a piece of debris before getting back on course. “Atlas, I’ve arrived at Sendak’s command ship.”

 _“We hear you crystal-clear, Takashi- oh, Allah,_ no!”

He turned just in time to see the plates holding the beams back crack and explode, one by one, like fireworks in the night sky.

Shiro screamed, nearly coming to a dead stop as the beams crackled together like lightning and converged. Time slowed, and then almost stopped entirely as another shockwave rippled out from the seething ball of energy, almost looking like it was alive. The Lions floated listlessly amongst the ruins of the plates, helpless to stop it, and for that long, awful moment Shiro did not know if his dear friends were alive or not.

From the convergence another lance of light appeared, racing down towards Earth in a near-dreamlike manner. He watched with horrid fascination as it reached for the atmosphere.

It never connected.

The Atlas’s forcefield shivered and flickered but held its own against the weapon. Shiro almost passed out from relief right there and then.

 _“Not so fast, bitch!”_ Adam screeched.

“Adam!”

_“Go, Takashi, go!”_

With renewed determination, Shiro lunged for Sendak’s cruiser and tore his way right through the hull and into the docking bay. The sentries that were guarding the doors opened fire almost immediately, but he didn’t even try to find cover. There was no time for the usual guerilla tactics that had served him and the Paladins well over the years. Instead, he charged right for them, his arm projecting a shield to deflect the laser fire.

They never stood a chance. Fifteen seconds and a bruised thigh later, he stood before a door that led to the rest of the ship, messing frantically with the keypad.

 _“Shiro, I can’t reach the Paladins,”_ Coran told him numbly. _“All Lions are completely dead. I… I don’t know if… just hurry.”_

He swallowed hard. “On my way. Okay, fuck this door.”

Shiro cocked back his fist and sent it into the door. One more win for amputees everywhere.

He did that three more times before he found the crystal.

It was harnessed in place by several cables, the entire thing as big as a school bus. “Sam, I’ve made it to the crystal.”

_“Good! Okay, before we begin, I have to warn you: this might be a little strange. I’m about to use your brain as a computer node.”_

Shiro sighed. Life just loved to kick him in the ass. “Well, wouldn’t be the first time.”

He strode up to the giant hunk of rock and placed his robotic hand against it.

There was a period of about two seconds where nothing happened, and then his entire body felt like it was burning up.

He was aware of somebody screaming in agony- him, he realized. Purple lightning crackled around the room. In the back of his mind, a voice reminded him that he was very good at dealing with pain, and that he should get his shit together.

_Ow, ow, ow shhiiiiiittttttfuckdamn okay, shit! AHHHH! Okay, you’re going to get through this, Shiro. You’re a bad bitch, that’s what Adam told you. You. Are. A. Bad. Bitch._

Sam spoke to him, but he really didn’t make out what the man was saying through the haze of pain, not that he really bothered to pay attention.

It might have lasted for a few minutes, it might have lasted for several hours, but when he came to (oh, shit, he totally passed out, didn’t he) there was the small problem that they were definitely in free fall towards Earth.

He figured that out because some Galran officer was screeching his head off over the loudspeakers _. “All personnel, abandon ship! Commander Sendak will pull us all to our deaths before he surrenders! We’re in free-fall towards Terra’s surface. May the stars grant you escape or a swift and honorable death. I- AUGH!”_

There was a lot of rustling as the mic at the officer’s end was jostled around, accompanied by the sound of choked cries as he was no doubt being strangled to death. Shiro winced as the sound of bones breaking echoed around the room.

He didn’t have to imagine who killed the officer.

Helmet securely back on his head (he must have clawed it off during his episode), he booked it out of the crystal’s chamber and headed for the front of the cruiser. With a surge of joy, he realized the Paladins must be alive, because why else would Sendak and his fleet be defeated? Shiro just hoped they would reach him in time before the cruiser crashed.

The entire battleship rattled around him as they continued plummeting through the atmosphere. Shiro found the control room by dumb luck; he literally got thrown into it as a particularly violent shake tossed him through the open door. What he found in it, however, almost made him wish he hadn’t.

Dead Galra were strewn about the room, their faces bloody and still clutching desperately to their weapons. One male officer had one of his arms torn off. Another had his neck hanging at an unnatural angle as he laid slumped against the main panels. A younger-looking female stared up into empty space with terrified golden eyes, her fangs glinting in the bright light of the fire surrounding the battleship. A ragged gasp left her open mouth.

She was still alive.

He scrambled over to her and knelt down, searching for injuries. Blood had spread over one side of her suit and on to the floor. Claw marks cut down her face and across her throat, and Shiro heard the whistle of air through her broken windpipe.

He covered the hole with his hand and supported her large head with the other. That wide golden gaze locked on to Shiro’s, and he could sense her fear.

Sendak had done this. He had turned on his own crew, his own _kind_ when they tried to fight for their lives. And this Galra here couldn’t be any older than he was, maybe even as young as Keith. She was just a _teenager._ An ugly rage built up in him until he could feel his eyes grow hot with tears.

“I don’t… wanna… die _… please,_ I’ll give you, _anything,_ have intel-“ she rasped, sobbing quietly, clawing desperately at the metal underneath her as if it alone could help her.

“No, I’m going to save you. I’m going to destroy Sendak for everything he’s done,” he told her. “I’ll avenge your crewmates for you, alright? The Paladins are going to come save us. But you have to stay alive until they arrive. Can you do that?”

“Victory… or death.”

“That’s right! You’re going to live to see tomorrow. I’ll get you a hospital room with a window so you can watch the sun rise. What’s your name?”

“Pan…dak. Pandak.”

“Pandak, huh? My name’s Shiro. I used to pilot the Black Lion,” he told her. The life was beginning to fade from her, he could practically feel it slipping away like the air from her slashed throat and chest.

The ship shivered violently, and Shiro slumped to the floor as it slowed. The G-force kept him pinned painfully, but he managed to keep his hand across Pandak’s throat to keep her from suffocating.

_“Shiro! We’re slowing the ship down. Where are you?”_

He almost wept. “Keith! I’m in the control room with an injured Galra, she needs help. Do you know where Sendak is?”

_“I was hoping you knew. Hang on, we’re two thousand feet from the surface and closing fast!”_

Shiro curled into a ball against Pandak, but before he could get himself comfortable an enraged bellow sounded from down the corridor. _“Paladin!”_

Pandak whimpered feebly. He gritted his teeth and with considerable effort, shoved himself upright and got to his feet. Shiro stormed towards the entrance, fists clenched, and leapt out with a roar.

Sendak’s expression of shock was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. He slammed into the Galra hard enough to knock him back into the wall.

“This is for everything you did to ruin my life,” he hissed into Sendak’s face.

Sendak surged up, but he was ready. Raising his metal fist, he sent it into the commander’s face with a crunch. Blood spurted out and coated Shiro’s suit in dark red. Shiro jumped back as he got grabbed at, but unfortunately, he hadn’t moved quickly enough.

Sendak held him with one fist like we weighed as much as a bag of chips. He grinned. Huge white fangs glinted, and Shiro knew he could tear out his throat if he wanted.

“Every fiber of my being will be dedicated to the destruction of you and your _pathetic_ planet!” Sendak snarled.

Shiro slammed into the ground hard enough to make his vision go white. Shit, he was an idiot. He couldn’t take on Sendak one-on-one like this. The guy was like, twice his size and made of pure muscle and hatred.

“Was it worth it? Killing all of those other Galra on your cruiser?” he managed. “You won’t be remembered as great anymore, not with the blood of your own kind on your hands.”

Sendak just sneered. “They were weak! They forgot the ways of our fierce and noble race the moment things went wrong!”

Not too far away from where he and the Galra were, he heard the sound of metal being forced inwards. Sendak’s ear twitched in acknowledgement, and when he looked to see what it was Shiro punched his knee with everything he had.

The commander bellowed in rage and pain as he went down on his good leg. The weight of his huge upper body and cyborg arm made him list over. He slammed the prosthetic weapon down to force himself back up, but in the space of a heartbeat he got bowled over by one absolutely _furious_ Adam Wahid.

“That’s what happens when you skip leg day, baby,” Adam sang as he yanked Sendak’s head back and drove a dagger into his scruff. Even with one arm, he was a formidable opponent.

Shiro grabbed the fur on Sendak’s neck and went to town. First, he sent his arm right through that thick armor in the shoulder so he couldn’t use his weapon-arm. He didn’t stop until the stump that used to be another arm was completely severed from the rest of the Galra commander. Every punch that broke skin and bone on his face, he thought of the dead Galra that lied just behind them. He thought of every single life Sendak took. Every bit of suffering he inflicted on him and the other prisoners during his time in the arena, every PTSD-induced flashback that left him defenseless and without hope. Sendak writhed, slashing furiously at Shiro and Adam, but he didn’t feel a thing.

They rolled over and over down the corridor like a trio of street cats, screeching and striking at Sendak as the metal was splattered with blood and gore. The Galra fought hard, slashing at Adam’s face to leave even more scars across the burnt skin. That just made Shiro even more angry, and in his fury a serrated blade unsheathed itself from his robot arm.

He didn’t hesitate. With a shout, he raised it above his head and plunged it into Sendak’s neck, just like the commander had done with poor Pandak.

A loud gurgle erupted from Sendak’s gaping mouth. Blood trickled from the corners and down his beaten face like thick globs of glue. Galran blood was thicker than humans’, Shiro remembered, evolved to slow down blood loss. It bled slower and clotted faster. He supposed that’s why Keith had always been such a fast healer.

But all of the evolutionary advantages in the universe couldn’t save him now. Sendak moved slowly now, scrabbling feebly at Adam’s side as at last his life began to drain away.

Shiro got to enjoy the sight for just a few more seconds before an incredible jolt sent the three of them flying. The battleship groaned and buckled. He landed hard on his ass, Adam not too far away. For a moment, he stared dazedly at the ceiling, knowing he had broken his tailbone.

Ow.

“Takashi?” Adam groaned.

“Present.”

“Cool.”

“I know, right?”

Painfully, Shiro scooted around to look at Sendak.

A pipe had dislodged from the ceiling and went straight through the Galra’s skull. If he hadn’t been dead before, he sure was now.

He nodded stiffly to himself and pushed to his feet before helping Adam up. Together, they stumbled back to the control room, where Pandak was.

“H-Help me move her,” he grunted, crouching down to shake her shoulder. She didn’t stir.

Adam pressed his fingers into her neck. He was still, and then he shook his head.

“No,” Shiro got out. “No, no, she was supposed to survive, she’s just a kid-“

“Oh, Takashi…”

As the shouts of the Paladins and Garrison officers reached his ears, they both wept and clung to each other, not out of relief that the battle was finally over, but what it had taken from the universe.

“We did it! Earth is saved!” Pidge whooped as she came crashing into the destroyed room. When she saw the two men on the floor with the dead Galra girl she stopped, and her face fell. The others came running in and did the same.

Shiro opened his mouth to say something, _Good job, guys,_ or _Is everybody okay?_

Sadly, the universe hated him, and so when the sonic boom of something racing down from the heavens made all of them jump he just groaned.

The battle wasn’t over yet.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fact that Shiro had that long ass fight with Sendak in canon, along with the fact he was Shiro's main tormentor for years only for Keith to come dropping out of the Black Lion and kill Sendak in one blow kind of sucked. The dude deserved closure, and he deserved to get it himself and with somebody who had also suffered because of Sendak. I was always of the opinion that Adam and Shiro should have teamed up and beat that bitch to death themselves, or at least Shiro killing Sendak on his own. Ugh. 
> 
> But yeah, thanks for waiting up for me my dudes. Classes have started for me again and I went through the absolute insanity of getting a new job at a fancy retirement community in town. Enjoy my headassery!


	9. Lions' Pride, Part 2

To say that Allura was exhausted was an understatement.

Not that she would ever let any of the Paladins know, but she hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since the beginning of their journey, right after they had escaped from that Ancients-damned interdimensional “show” that almost made her pull her hair out and cry several times. She was ready to get Shiro and Adam out of Sendak’s cruiser, help get everybody back to the Galaxy Garrison, and sleep for the next five decaphoebs. The stars would grant her that much, right?

Apparently not.

She watched in horror through Blue’s visor as the _thing,_ flaming-hot from the trip through Earth’s atmosphere streaked down towards the surface. “No!”

 _“Paladins, brace for impact!”_ Keith barked. He, Shiro, and Adam hit the dirt, the two adult men hunched protectively over Keith as the mysterious object roared on down and smashed into the Earth hard enough for Allura to feel it through her Lion. A massive cloud of dust billowed up into the air. She could feel Blue’s apprehension through their psychic link, even more so when they had almost failed to stop Sendak’s cannons from destroying Earth.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, but Blue just huffed worriedly and lashed her tail.

As the dust cleared, a fuchsia glow appeared through the haze. It dimmed as a mechanical hum filled the air, revealing one of the largest mechs Allura had ever seen.

It was pure white, the color of silver in starlight, beautiful in a deathly manner that made the princess’s blood freeze in their veins. The mech had come to rest on one knee, as if it was bowing to them. In both hands were scythes nearly as tall as Voltron itself, edges glinting sharply in the afternoon sun. Why looking at it made her feel so ill, she knew not, but what she did know was that something was _horribly_ wrong.

 _“Adam, get Shiro to the Atlas! We’ll take it from here,”_ she heard Keith order.

_“Got it!”_

_“It’s booting up!”_ Lance warned.

She swallowed as the mech’s visor came aglow. It rose to its feet and considered them for a tick, and then leveled its fist at them and opened fire.

Blue was zooming out of there before Allura could even blink. The five of them ducked behind the fallen Galran cruiser for cover as the hail of lasers shot by like lightning. Below, fireballs bloomed up like flowers from the assault.

Lance and Pidge, the swiftest Lion pilots, charged the mech and shot at it with everything they had. The mech twirled its scythe to form a shield and reflected the lasers like it was nothing.

“Blast!” she cried.

She saw Keith and Lance form their jaw blades, and she did the same and swooped down to join in the battle. One tick, she was heading right for the thing, the next, she was nearly knocked from her seat as it swatted her aside like a bothersome insect.

Keith had taken the worst hit. The Black Lion laid motionless on their side, and Allura shrieked when the mech charged towards them. “Keith!”

 _“Get away from him!”_ Lance came crashing down and zipped between the mech’s legs. It did nothing to harm it, but it bought Keith time to pull the Black Lion back up.

 _“Thanks,”_ he gasped.

_“You got it, Mullet!”_

They regrouped a thousand feet up and charged once more. The mech braced itself with its feet apart and raised an arm at them. Allura realized it had a cannon function built into its arm brace.

“Cannon!” she shouted.

It fired, and they all dodged. Unhappy with its misfire, it cocked its arm back and hurled the double-headed scythe into the air. The weapon whirled right past them, and Allura almost exhaled in relief before it boomeranged around and hit the Yellow Lion hard enough to knock it down a couple hundred feet.

 _“Anybody know where this thing came from?”_ Hunk demanded.

 _“No clue!”_ Pidge sounded scared. Allura knew the girl didn’t like it when she didn’t know things, especially if it happened to be their enemy. _“I assume its some kind of Altean tech? Allura, does this thing ring any bells?”_

“Why would any self-respecting Altean build that kind of monstrosity?!” Allura snarled. “I- _watch out!”_

For the next two hours, nobody got to say anything other than a quick order from Keith or Lance. The mech kept conjuring up new weapons to assault them with, and she and the other Paladins kept on the defense. In Lance’s words, they were “getting the shit beaten out of them”.

Keith got swatted out of the air for the eleventh time and she got blasted on before Allura couldn’t keep the rage inside of her anymore.

“We just defeated an entire Galran armada and now _this?”_ she screeched. “I curse it all! Damn you! No, _fuck_ you!”

 _“Allura-!”_ Lance pleaded, and his voice was almost enough to calm her down a bit.

Almost.

She hit the ground running and leapt right at the mech with a roar. It raised its scythe, ready to strike, and then…

It didn’t.

She almost halted in her tracks.

The entire machine seemed to be seizing up, almost as if it were resisting some otherworldly force. The scythe trembled in the mech’s hands. It swayed unsteadily, dirt and sand kicked up by shuffling footsteps.

The moment was broken by a heavy blast right to its chest.

 _“Need some backup?”_ Adam Wahid asked smugly.

“Thank you, Adam!” she gasped, pulling away from the mech as it got enveloped in fire. Blue eagerly shot into the sky as the Atlas focused all of its efforts into pummeling the mysterious robot into the ground.

A violet blast of light exploded from the dust cloud surrounding it and hit the Atlas dead on. The forcefield activated right away, but the beam went right through it like it was made of paper. The Atlas buckled midair.

_Ancients, no._

_“Atlas! I need you to hold this thing back for a few seconds so we can form Voltron! It’s the only way we’re gonna beat this thing,”_ Lance shouted.

 _“Affirmative!”_ Coran answered.

Lance whooped. _“Paladins, let’s rock and roll!”_

Allura felt her chest warm as she heard him take charge once again. Lance had become an _incredible_ leader, enough so to possibly even go toe-to-toe with Shiro, or even herself. It was inspiring to watch him, even more so to follow him.

They formed Voltron in what felt like a split tick of time and smashed into the mech that had nearly attacked the Atlas head-on.

 _“Thanks for covering, Atlas!”_ Lance called over. _“Hey, Shiro, if we get this thing far enough into the desert do you think we could like, nuke it? ‘Cause that would be-”_

_“Quit messing around, Lance!”_

_“Hey, it was a legitimate question!”_

Allura yelped as the mech’s scythe glowed, extending to form two straight blades on each end. The staff separated and formed dual blades. The mech assumed a fighting stance, blades held protectively in front of it.

 _“My bayard port’s glowing!”_ she heard Lance say in surprise.

 _“Me too!”_ Pidge exclaimed.

The mech charged. Lance and Pidge slammed their bayards in with twin cries of rage, and Allura watched in awe as twin swords burst from Voltron’s Lion-hands.

They went up against the mech in a flurry of blades and shouts. Unfortunately, it was way bigger than Voltron, and thus had the advantage of both size and strength. Both swords were knocked out of their hands in just a few ticks. They stumbled back as the mech launched itself into the air, blades raised to strike them down.

 _“Pidge, shield!”_ Keith shouted.

The two halves of the shield came together in front of them. Allura braced herself for impact. She did not, however, anticipate the blades cutting right through the shield and knocking them backwards. A violet light bloomed in front of her, blinding her for a few ticks. She shouted as every hair stood on end; the mech had stabbed them.

The other Paladins were screaming, too, and she felt the energy get sucked out of them. _What… in the twelve realms…_

Pidge suddenly shrieked louder than the others, and a burst of blue light sent the mech back.

_She blasted it away!_

_“Good work, Pidge!”_ Lance crowed. He sounded weak despite his enthusiasm, and a surge of anger flooded Allura. She was going to _kill_ this thing for hurting him.

 _“Paladins, what happened? Are you okay?”_ Shiro demanded.

 _“That thing… sucked our energy,”_ Hunk wheezed.

 _“… Komar,”_ Pidge mumbled.

Allura shivered.

She heard Shiro telling the pilots to return to the Atlas, but another wave of… something overcame her. It was calling out to her; the Komar. Desperate, afraid. It was… was that thing alive? Was it like Voltron?

Her rage faded away.

Keith’s voice snapped her back to reality. _“Shiro, Adam,_ no! _Move!”_

She looked up just in time to see a pure black cannon blast collide with the Atlas.

 _“The power this thing is generating… it should be impossible,”_ Pidge said in utter disbelief. _“This Komar can absorb quintessence from basically anything. My surge indicators are spiking every time its about to fire. It’s using our own energy to power its attacks!”_

 _“We have to avoid direct contact. Everyone, get up!”_ Lance ordered.

A surge of energy flooded Allura, and she almost choked. Lance was using his own quintessence to fuel everyone else.

 _“Up!”_ he screeched again. _“I’m not gonna say it again, people! Get! Your! Asses! Up!”_

They got up. Pidge and Lance formed their dual blades. Keith secured Voltron’s wings on to its back, and they were _off._

The Komar powered up for another blast and fired at them. Keith guided them out of range of the quintessence beam, if one could even call it that anymore, and struck hard at the Komar. It forced them off and swung, but they managed to dance away before it could grab Voltron again. It used its elbow to jab at their face and succeeded. Keith yelped, the Black Lion taking the brunt of the hit, and fired the booster rockets to stabilize them. Allura shouted encouragement as they dove at the Komar once more.

 _“Wait! Be careful! We’re basically on top of the labor camp!”_ Hunk shouted.

 _“Then we take the fight to the sky,”_ Keith snarled. _“Lance, shoot at it to get it mad!”_

_“Hell yeah!”_

They leapt into the air and bolted straight up. Lance shot at the Komar as they ascended, and sure enough, the mech took the bait.

Voltron and the Komar engaged in what Allura was sure had to be the most spectacular dogfight of all time. They tackled and stabbed and fell and rose. Earth fell away so that it was just them and the sky, with no up and down. She didn’t know how long it lasted, only that it all ended when one of Voltron’s swords got knocked away.

 _“Pidge, cannon!”_ Keith ordered.

Pidge obeyed instantly. It hit the Komar right in the face and sent it down, but it dodged out of the way and let the beam hit the Atlas.

 _“No!”_ Pidge shrieked.

The Komar stabbed them again as it drove them into the Earth. Allura blacked out.

<> 

When she came to, a mech the size of a comet was smashing the Komar into the ground.

“What… the… fuck…” Pidge spluttered.

She could barely process what it was seeing. Was that the _Atlas?_ _Their_ Atlas?

 _“Paladins! Are you okay?”_ Shiro was demanding. _“Answer me, now! Don’t make me come down there, I have a huge robot thing and I’m not afraid to use it!_

“Shiro,” Allura got out.

 _“How did you… do that?”_ Keith practically squeaked.

 _“She. Is. Thicc,”_ Lance whispered reverently.

_“I don’t know how I did it, but we’ve got you covered! Coran, keep beating that piece of shit into the ground!”_

The Komar managed to wriggle its way out of the Atlas’s grip and _… projected_ itself. It was now nearly as big as the other mech, and stronger. The hologram-esque vision smashed the Atlas down and stabbed its blades deep into its back. Pidge gasped.

Then, the plates on its chest opened.

 _“Keith, that’s it! It’s the only place that’s not armored!”_ Lance cried.

“That’s barely enough time to hit it,” Allura protested. Could they really do it?

_“My bayard! It’s glowing again! I bet I can hit it with this!”_

_“Lance, you’re incredible,”_ Keith breathed. Lance made a strangled noise, and across their psychic connection Allura felt his incredulity. Pidge and Hunk snickered.

 _“Shut up, you two. Let’s do this!_ ” the Red Paladin yelled.

Lance and Keith formed the wings of Voltron, and then the blazing sword. Allura gasped, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. The sword was flashing with every color of the visible light spectrum, a rainbow of fire that sliced across the sky. She felt the quintessence of the two boys _merge_ and become something else, something that took her breath away. In that moment, the pilot of the Black Lion and the pilot of the Red Lion become one.

They surged at the Komar at the speed of sound. At the last second, they turned away, and it stumbled midair and whirled around to keep its eyes on them.

But it was too late.

Lance and Keith’s sword was buried in its chest in the space of a heartbeat.

It all but went supernova, and they were sent flying back to Earth. For the third time that day, Allura was knocked unconscious.

<> 

When she woke the Komar was dead.

 _“-lo? Everybody alive?”_ Keith was asking frantically.

“Ugh. Blue Lion, checkin in,” Allura mumbled.

 _“Here.”_ Hunk sounded wrecked.

 _“Ow.”_ Pidge.

 _“Puta,”_ Lance hissed. She exhaled in relief.

Keith groaned. _“Atlas, what’s your status?”_

Silence.

_“Atlas, can you hear me?”_

A more pressing matter emerged when red lights began flashing in Allura’s Lion.

 _“What’s that?”_ Lance asked, alarmed. _He must be having the same issue._

 _“My surge indicators…”_ Pidge muttered. _“Something’s coming from the Komar.”_

_“I thought that thing was dead!”_

_“It was.”_

Hunk suddenly squawked. _“Oh no! It’s powering up! It’s got a self-destruct mechanism!”_

Allura sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, Ancients.”

Pidge swore _. “According to my readings, the blast radius alone would… destroy half of the Earth. Oh, shit. Oh, shit, this is really bad.”_

 _“Time to chuck this thing into the space garbage!”_ Lance yelped.

Without words, they dove under the Komar, each Lion supporting a limb or the torso, and lifted off as fast as they could.

They passed one cloud, then another, much too slow for Allura’s liking. She could feel every thump of her heart, every breath she took, every tick that passed.

 _“C’mon, c’mon,”_ Keith was saying. _“Please, let us have this, just this once-“_

Higher and higher they went, faster and faster as each one of them poured every bit of quintessence into their Lions. Allura thought of her father, her mother as they did so. She would save Earth for them, she decided, along with everybody who lived on it. The Galra would not take this beautiful, broken place away from the humans.

They were now at the very edge of Earth’s atmosphere. It was so beautiful from up there, almost like Altea. It would be beautiful again once the humans rebuilt. They had her people’s tech to use if they wished, so that a part of her home would live on in them.

The thought made her smile.

Every planet they had saved, she had spread a bit of her lost home to them, hadn’t she? Even if they never found Romelle’s colony, Altea would live on.

It always would.

“It’s been an honor flying with you all,” Keith told them.

Just as they left Earth behind entirely, they had no more to give. Allura slumped over at her chair. As the Komar exploded, taking each of the Paladins and her with it, she smiled.

_Altea forever._

<> 

_“Today is a solemn day. Today we look back at the lives we lost, and the sacrifices that were made here on Earth, and across the universe. There isn’t one of us here today that hasn’t experienced the tragedy of losing someone who is close to you. It truly feels like… a light has gone out of our lives, and the sun itself could not reignite it...”_

Allura watched from her hospital bed as Shiro made his speech to the masses. All across the planet, survivors would be huddling around their televisions, radios, laptops. People would travel to the nearest place with technology that still functioned, even if it was many, many miles to hear the former Black Paladin of Voltron speak. Shiro had a _way_ with people, something that made them want to listen to him.

_“… and now we must move forward, in their names, and shine that light to a new path. For future generations, for all of us. Today is a solemn day. But it is also a day of hope.”_

In her hand, Platt squeaked, almost as if in agreement. At the foot of her bed, Romelle giggled, reaching out to pet the mouse’s tiny head.

_“Earth is now stronger than ever, and it stands as a beacon of hope and light! To help guide those who are fighting against tyranny and oppression. From here we will spread peace, and together we will hold strong. As the defenders of the universe, we will never yield!”_

“Now _that’s_ a speech!” Coran boomed, tugging on his mustache proudly. “I must say, that Adam fellow sure has excellent taste. I can appreciate a fellow man of culture.”

“Jealous, Coran?” Romelle giggled.

The older advisor squawked and hit the blonde with a pillow. “You dirty child, your mind is as twisted as a Phellopian vine! For _shame.”_

Allura laughed. “Romelle has a dirty mind? Coran, you absolute hypocrite. I haven’t forgotten all those sex jokes you made to my father when I was younger!”

 _“What?!_ Your brain is playing tricks on you, Princess. I did no such thing.” Coran stuck his nose up in the air and strutted away. “If you’ll excuse me, ladies, Shay wants my opinion on the Balmeran crystal installations they’ve made on the Atlas. Ta!”

“Goodbye!” both girls chorused.

They waited until they were sure Coran was out of earshot before bursting into laughter.  

“Reminds me of my father, Carlus. He was such a goofball,” Romelle sighed.

Allura blinked in surprise. “Your father was named Carlus? Coran had a brother with the same name! How curious.”

“He did?”

“Indeed. Had a crest of flaming red hair even brighter than Coran’s. I only met him once or twice, but he was a most delightful man.”

Romelle stared at her in shock. “I believe we’re talking about the same person, Princess. If my father is Coran’s brother, then that practically makes us…”

“Cousins,” Allura breathed.

There were several ticks of stunned silence.

“If-If that is okay, of course! I wouldn’t want to assume anything, how improper of me, I-“ the girl started to babble, but Allura quickly covered her hands with her own.

“No, Romelle. I would be _more_ than delighted to call you my family.”

Romelle’s pretty lavender eyes welled up with tears, and she threw herself into Allura’s arms. For a long time, they just held each other, like they were both clinging to debris on the stormy sea of life.

 _Two lost souls,_ Allura thought mournfully.

<> 

The quintants flew by, and the seasons changed from cool to frozen. That didn’t stop the rebuilding process, however, even if Lance did keep on starting snowball fights whenever he thought everybody needed a break. Allura joined in on the efforts as soon as she could. Several cities in the area were built with the Blue Lion, which the water spirit seemed to love. The only thing Blue loved more than building things was letting the human children climb all over her, judging by the near-deafening purrs in Allura’s head.

For a while, everything was amazing. She hung out with the Paladins and explored Earth on their down time. Hunk taught her how to cook Earth dishes, Pidge cackling in delight whenever she would inevitably set something on fire. She and Keith did business with the few remaining members of the Blade of Marmora. Lance took her around in Red to show her the sunsets, the mountains and the almost-endless expanses of blue oceans.

Just when winter broke, however, she got a call from Samuel Holt.

“It’s about the Komar,” was all he would tell her.

She rushed to the Galaxy Garrison in Blue, startling a group of cadets doing exercises outside of the buildings. They stared up at her with wide eyes as she leapt down from the Lion’s mouth and ran inside.

Iverson gave her a dirty look as she sprinted by, but he didn’t try to stop her. She didn’t stop running until she reached Sam’s office. To her surprise, the other Paladins were there, standing close together as if they were unconsciously expecting a threat. She looked hopefully at Lance in case he knew anything, but the boy just shrugged in confusion.

“Right this way,” Sam said.  

They darted into the nearest elevator that took them down to the first basement level. Before her, various bits of familiar machinery spread out across the floor.

“As you know, we’ve spent months collecting parts of this creature. We never found its power source, which was confusing, but just yesterday we got a rather… interesting report.”

They left the elevator and approached a huge… anvil-shaped case of some kind, curiously vacant of scientists. The case was nearly as big as the Black Lion, laying flat on the ground and shining faintly in the darkness of the basement.

A flurry of raised voices from behind the thing made all of them jump. Allura and Sam ran to the other side of the huge piece of machinery, where they found where all of the scientists had gone off to. They were gathered cautiously around something. Several of them had their weapons drawn and ready.

When the personnel saw that the Paladins and Sam had arrived, they quickly got out of their way. An energy pulled on Allura, drawing her forward despite Lance’s warning to stay back in case it wasn’t safe. She knew that feeling. It was the same sensation that she had felt during the battle with the Komar, not six months ago.

Somebody was being held by Colleen Holt and being carefully watched over by that Curtis bloke and another scientist. The three of them were sitting, with the form of a tall, lanky man unconscious in Colleen’s arms. He seemed to be dead. He did not respond when Curtis carefully inserted an IV into his arm, nor did he stir when Pidge’s mother carefully laid him down on the blanket she was kneeling on. His white hair was filthy and matted with blood, suit broken in several places to reveal the bodysuit underneath. And his face…

Allura would know that face anywhere.

Her knees gave out, and she sank unsteadily to the concrete. The Paladins’ shocked exclamations reached her ears through a thick layer of fog. Lance’s hand was on her shoulder, Pidge at her side before she could even take another breath.

Sprawled out lifelessly on the floor was Lotor.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so in case y'all didn't notice, this is the part of the story where shit REALLY hits the fan.


	10. Interlude: Lotor's Escape

One would expect his memory to have gone awry during his time in the rift, but truth be told, it started before that.

Why would… why wouldn’t they listen to him? He had tried so hard to save them. His people. That poor Altean girl, the blonde, she had no idea what she was talking about. Alright, he would just ask Allura to get them to stand down. Then they would all discuss this horrid situation like civilized people-

Darkness. Clone.

No, no, stop it! _Please, don’t you understand? … We were meant to be together!_

Those fools. They would get them all killed! Didn’t they understand that he did what he had to do… that he had done his best? How _dare_ she claim he was anything like his father?! Why… didn’t she love him? Everything they had been through, tossed away like trash. He couldn’t make sense of it no matter how hard he tried.

_Don’t leave me! **Allura!**_

He was screaming, screaming as agony he had never felt before tore through his body. They… Voltron, was blasting him to pieces. The quintessence all around him rippled and buckled in feverish delight as it overwhelmed his body. It burst cells and unwound DNA and fried his neurons. Quintessence was not kind. It was not _life._ It was simply another aspect of the universe that was indifferent to any living thing, same as dark matter or gamma rays. It would not save him. It would not save anybody.

That cursed energy was never the answer. _Please, my friends, save me-_

He snapped out of the madness as he slowly died. The poisonous fog that had clouded his thoughts receded, the madness abandoning him to face reality in all its terrible glory. Everything that had happened in the last several vargas came crashing down on him and left him stunned. He was alone now, drifting aimlessly in the rift as the life slowly drained from his body. It hurt. _Ancients,_ it hurt so badly. But even the unbearable spasms wracking his body was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.

Lotor left the universe the same way he came into it: alone, weeping, and miserable.

_What have I done?_

<> 

Lotor was dead for approximately three decaphoebs, seventy-three quintants, nine vargas, thirteen doboshes, and forty-seven ticks.

The Altean woman made the calculations that led up to that answer with ease, bony fingers clicking away at her keyboard with such speed and ferocity that the sound all but melded together into a continuous hum. Golden eyes glared at the screen when it yielded the results. The woman stood from her chair with force, almost knocking it over before she caught it and set it back up. She hurried over to the unconscious form of her son resting in the pod.

If the stars aligned in her favor, perhaps she would be able to succeed in her plan.

Even now, there was too much quintessence inside of his body. The energy had preserved his body perfectly, “pausing” all his body’s functions more than killing them, and for that she was eternally grateful. But now it was time to remove it.

She pressed the button to open the glass cover, and it slowly raised to allow her access to her son. Carefully, she inserted the tubes into various points on his body, making sure everything was where it was supposed to before turning on the stabilizer.

The machine hummed quietly as it went to work, and within three ticks the tubes attaching her son to its systems began glowing as the excess quintessence was drained from his body. Her interest was piqued when the woman saw one of the long fingers twitch, but when nothing else happened during the next dobosh she sighed and turned away, collecting some of the important files on her desk before heading out the door. She locked it behind her and vowed to return the tick she was done with her business.

Back inside of the room, unbeknownst to her, Lotor’s fingers twitched again. Dry lips parted as he gasped for air for the first time in decapheobs. The machine, sensing its charge was regaining bodily control through the gas exchange, flooded the chamber with oxygen and various vitamins to assist him. Lotor swallowed through the dryness in his throat, and finally forced his eyes open.

He knew where he was almost right away. How many eons had he spent within these walls with his medical staff running tests on the Alteans? Too many, for most other creatures.

But the design of the pod he was in was just a bit off; too Galran, and with that he knew it was time to take his leave. With one shaking hand, he hit the emergency ‘OFF’ button above his head and slowly pulled the wires from his body. The translucent casing rose off the pod and granted him a way out.

Lotor took a couple of deep breaths, staring hard at the ceiling as he steeled himself. Then, he grabbed the edges of his temporary prison and forced himself to sit up. When his head stopped spinning from the effort, he tried to raise his legs to swing them over the side, but the effort nearly made him pass out once more. No, this would not do.

Instead, he opted for simply leaning out over the edge, bracing himself, and then fell out altogether in an ungainly heap and landed on the floor with a _thump._

“Ow.”

Upon locating his somehow still-functional suit and helmet, which he promptly put on his person, he counted three tiles from the door and then two to his right. He stomped on it and breathed a sigh of relief when it faithfully flipped up to reveal a secret passage just large enough for someone of his stature to squeeze through. His paranoia had served him well, even as a thousand-year-old youngster.

_My thanks, witch. Until we meet again._

 


	11. Launch Date, Part One

Was Lance surprised that the bastard had survived being yeeted into the quintessence rift? Nah. Was he worried about the safety risk Lotor posed being aboard the Atlas? Not at the moment; the dude was sleeping like the dead under heavy surveillance in the medical bay. Was he worried that he would die, therefore losing any possible intel on Honerva and the Altean colony? Nope. One, they would just figure something else out, because that’s what a bunch of teenagers and one (1) adult did when they got tossed into an intergalactic war. Two, Lance had figured out that Lotor was pretty frickin’ hard to kill. The Galran was like, on par with Shiro with getting out of life-or-death situations.

What (or rather, who) he was concerned with was Allura.

She hadn’t said anything when they had discovered Lotor, just kind of sank to her knees and stared at him with something in her eyes that made Lance want to cry. It was a mixture of devastation, relief, rage, fear… it haunted him.

The medical staff had brought out a gurney for him, and Allura helped them pick up the half-dead prince since he was so big and heavy. They got him secured, and then they went off, Allura in the lead like the ruler she was. Lance realized that she would need to help the doctors stabilize Lotor; they obviously had no idea what to do with an alien. Every day she would be at his bedside, sitting with her head bowed as the world continued on without her. Sometimes, when Lance would pass by the room (he would never admit to taking an extra long route just to see her) he could see her mouth moving, even if he could not hear what she was saying to him.  

That had been two months ago.

Lost as he was in thought, he didn’t notice Romelle until the girl sat down hard next to him on the couch.

“I don’t understand,” she snapped. “The Princess spends her days in prayer by _him,_ all hunched over as if in mourning. She knows what that monster has done to our people. I saw her fight against him before he was sealed away in the rift, and she battled as if all the Ancients had bestowed their blessings upon her! Does she regret her just actions?”

Lance couldn’t blame Romelle for being angry. But something had been niggling at the back of his mind ever since Lotor came crashing back into their lives, and it made him nervous. “Romelle, I get why you feel like that. But even you said that you don’t know the whole story. If we want to bring Lotor to justice, we have to understand the whole situation first. When he wakes up, he _will_ tell us everything.”

“I know enough. And if Lotor never wakes up? What then? If I had it my way I would cut the power to his life support and dance around the room as he dies.”

His blood ran cold. “Holy shit, Romelle.”

The Altean girl rolled her eyes. “It’s more than he deserves, Lance. Besides, if he’s stuck like that forever it would be merciful to just let him go now.”

Feeling slightly disturbed, he looked over to Romelle. She glared into empty space, picking at some skin at her thumb, and as he watched blood welled up under it. She pinched it with her other fingers to seal the wound and twisted slightly. Lance wondered if she was imagining crushing Lotor instead.

“Allura and him… well. She was in love with him.” The words were bitter in his mouth, but he continued. “And Lotor loved her back. Did I like it? No. And I definitely didn’t like him. But I could see how much he wanted to save people, how driven he was to right the wrongs of the Galran Empire. It… it just doesn’t add up.”

“Don’t fall for his charm,” Romelle warned.

“Ha, not a chance. But until we know everything, can you hold on for us?” He took her hand and squeezed it between his own. “Look, if he really did do all of the things you said he did, you get first dibs on him. You can chop his head off with my bayard, if you want.”

Romelle smiled and relaxed a little. “I knew I could count on you, Lance.”

He did his best to smile at her, despite the uneasiness churning his stomach. “… Yeah.”

Something beeped on her wrist, and Romelle’s face brightened as she jumped to her feet. “Oh, that’s Coran! I promised I’d help him with the crystal for the Atlas. Bye!”

“Don’t blow anything up!” he yelled after her.

As she turned the corner down the hallway, she almost ran smack into Keith. After some hurried apologies and an awkward wave from Keith, she took off at top speed again. Keith watched her go with a slightly baffled look but spotted him and hurried over.

“Hey, man! What’s up?” He didn’t have to pretend to be happy to see Keith; the guy always put him in a good mood nowadays.

Keith stood before him, shuffling almost nervously. “Uh, Hunk wants you to know if you want to have lunch with him and his parents? He’s busy cooking, so he asked me to ask you.”

“Hell yeah! I’d fight another komar for Hunk’s cooking,” Lance proclaimed, launching himself off the couch and throwing an arm around Keith’s shoulders. They were the same height now, which Keith was _definitely_ smug about, the bastard. “What about you? You’re coming, right?”

“Ah, no. Shiro and I have to, um. We’re doing stuff with the Black Lion?”

Well that was fishy. “The Black Lion? Are they okay?”

“Yeah…” Keith shifted, not meeting his gaze. “I… I’ve been… I’ve lost my bond with them.”

 _“What?_ Why?”

“Not so loud!” he hissed.

Lance was in shock. How the hell did Keith just un-bond with his Lion? He and Black seemed pretty tight, from what he could tell.

Then he remembered how he had been acting recently, almost as if he was constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown. Keith had never wanted to be the leader. He treated the entire thing as if it was a huge curse, going nearly insane in his attempts to find Shiro when the former Black Paladin went missing. Then, when they got “Shiro” back, the first thing Keith did was to dick off to the Blade of Marmora.

He left them. He left _Lance._

“Keith… this is related to how you’ve been feeling, hasn’t it?” he asked.

But Keith was already pushing by Lance, eyes on the ground. “I gotta go. We can talk later.”

“Wait…”

Keith yanked the door open that led to the stairwell and vanished.

 _“Díos mio,”_ Lance groaned, scrubbing his face with his hands. “That dude is going to be the death of me.”

<> 

Dinner with Hunk and his parents was awesome. Both of his moms and their husband made some kind of Samoan dish that he couldn’t get enough of, much to their delight. Amosa and Sally, Hunk’s brother and sister respectively, were over the moon to finally meet him. The two kids were now teenagers, even if their eyes were much older. War had taken its toll on all of them and did not have mercy.

“I can’t imagine how much weight you all lost in space! Eat, eat!” Mrs. Garret-Tsuyoshi urged him, piling more shrimp and rice on to his plate. “Besides, I stole all of this from the kitchen. I can’t afford to leave any evidence again!”

“Again?” Lance squeaked.

The woman leaned in, a finger raised sternly. “I did what I had to do to make sure my family didn’t starve like heathens. If Iverson has a problem with it, he can kiss my ass!”

“Sweetheart!” Her wife cried. Hunk’s father guffawed and slapped her back. Sally grinned with a mouthful of vegetables.

“Oh, shush, babe. These kids fought a war, they can handle some foul language.”

“Mom! Mama!” Hunk whined.

“Alright, alright. Lance, tell us everything. How did Hunk do on his own?”

“Yeah, Lance!” Amosa cheered.

Hunk groaned and let his head come down on the table with a _bang._

The thing was, Hunk had been his best friend since forever. Being best friends with somebody meant that you couldn’t share their secrets. The main principle of bro-hood was trust, and trust meant never revealing things that could be embarrassing to your bro, even to their family.

That being said, it was also a best friend’s job to antagonize the absolute _shit_ out your bro.

“… and then, after Pidge yanked that space worm out of her arm and just _hurled_ it across the room without looking. The entire time it was flying it was also crapping and pissing, so it looked like when you toss a wet towel and the water flies off it from the inertia or whatever, and then it just slaps _right_ into Hunk’s face. The empress of the planet we were on, uh, what was her name? I think it was Illeyia? Yeah, Illeyia! She was just standing there looking like her entire planet got blown up! And then Hunk barfed everywhere, because hello, a crapping and pissing space worm just got Kobe’d into his face. But what we didn’t know was that throwing up on that planet was like, a huge offense no matter what the circumstances, so basically we had like five seconds to apologize to Illeyia and skidoo out of there before the guards showed up,” Lance explained.

“Hunk, you almost started a war!” Amosa yelled.

“I did and I still feel terrible!” Hunk wailed.

“Yeah, and I never even got the Empress’s contact info,” Lance complained. Lord, that woman(?) was sure a vision. “Don’t worry about it, though, Hunk. Remember the time I almost got Shiro and Keith blown up because I cut the green wire instead of the yellow one in that bomb on that one planet? Y’know, with the sand… and the rocks…”

Hunk slammed his drink down. “Yeah I remember! You thought for a second the English word for green was the one for yellow and vice versa and almost killed us all.”

“Just Shiro and Keith.”

“Eh, true. The universe can’t seem to kill Shiro no matter how hard it tries and Keith is too full of spite to die this young.”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine.”

Hunk’s parents stared at them with wide eyes and raised brows. Sally grinned as she chewed on her shrimp.

“… Why would you wanna date that empress when you like that princess?” Amosa asked, effectively breaking the silence.

Lance choked and spit out his food.

“Haha!”

“Shut-!” More coughing. “Shut up, Hunk!”

“Ooh, tell us more, Lance!” Sally squealed.

Mrs. Garret-Tsuyoshi rested her elbows on the table and cupped her face in her hands. Her husband and wife promptly followed suit. Amosa whipped out a pen and notepad.

Lance resisted the urge to jump out the window but was able to pull back when he realized they were on the ground level at the Garrison and therefore the impact would not be enough to instantly kill him. Rats.

“There’s nothing to talk about!” he finally got out. “Allura’s a princess, I’m… not. I mean, like, royalty or whatever! Besides, now’s a hard time for her. I’m not going to be rude and take advantage of her like that.”

“On the contrary. I think now’s a great time, Lance. She needs a _break,”_ Hunk insisted. “It’s been like, what, two months now? Lotor’s not going anywhere and Allura needs to get off her butt and rejoin society.”

He hesitated, staring intently at his nearly-finished plate.

Okay, there was all his generic excuses, his _I’m-not-good-enoughs_ and his _Now’s-not-a-good-times._ He was also really, really nervous. If he screwed up, Coran would not hesitate to give him a piece of his mind, his friendship with Allura would be forever ruined, and he’d probably hate himself until the end of the universe.

A date with Allura was something he’d dreamed of since the moment he met her. First, they’d have dinner with his parents. He’d make her laugh as he showed her around his childhood home; the spot behind the basement door that he used as his regular hide-and-seek spot as a kid, the hole in the wall where Veronica punched it after watching _Karate Kid,_ the window in his bedroom that didn’t make any noise when opened or closed and could be snuck out of at night. He’d take her down to the beach after the sun went down, and they’d walk on the shore and watch the moonlight sparkling on the waves.

From there they’d have their first kiss and a sweet goodnight, or if he was feeling more… _daring,_ he’d imagine a sandy but passionate romp right there on the beach. Those fantasies were strictly reserved for being alone on late nights.

Then he remembered he was still with Hunk’s family and started coughing loudly.

Hunk thumped him on the back. “So, whaddya say, man? You gonna give it a shot?”

“Lance! Lance! Lance!” Amosa cheered.

“Oh, what the cheese, guys-“

“Lance! Lance! Lance!”

“Oh, not you too, Mr. Garret!”

_“Lance! Lance! Lance!”_

“OKAY!” He exploded from his chair, knocking it over and slamming his hands down on the table. “I’ll do it!”

“Yeah! Atta boy!” Mrs. Garret yelled.

“No fear, boy! No fear!”

Lance shoved a whole bread roll into his mouth and wiped his hands off on his pants. Holy shit. Was he really doing this? Was he finally going to have the balls to ask out the girl of his dreams?

Hunk shoved him towards the door, calling something back to his parents which Lance couldn’t hear because of the ringing in his skull. He felt like he was going to pass out.

Somehow, he found himself putting on his shoes and jacket and following Hunk out the door. He might have thanked Hunk’s parents for letting him eat lunch with them, maybe he didn’t. Lord, he hoped he did or his Mama would hit him with the _chanclá._

Anyhoo.

“You’re gonna do it, man! This is it!” Hunk hyped him up as they hurried down the hallway. The fluorescent lights were giving Lance a headache.

“I’m gonna throw up.”

“You better not! We’re setting an example for the Galaxy Garrison, remember? You and Keith took over this joint!” Hunk yelled.

Lance winced. “Not so loud! Okay, okay, medic bay is to the left up here-“

As it turned out, that was all the prep time he was going to get. He and Hunk turned the corner, all but falling over themselves to keep their balance, and almost ran smack into Allura and Romelle.

The two Alteans were walking close together, talking urgently amongst themselves, and therefore barely even noticed him and Hunk scampering out of their way. Romelle’s brows were furrowed, lavender eyes sharp and weary. Allura just looked… distant.

 _It’s now or never!_ “Oh, hey! Uh, Allura!”

Allura blinked, seemingly snapping out of the daze she had been in. “Lance? Oh, hello. Nice to see you too, Hunk. What’s going on?”

“Oh, uh, nothing much!” He clasped his hands behind his back. Crap, they were sweaty. Sweaty hands were bad. “Just, uh… checking in! So how are… things?”

He was going to stab himself with his own sword.

Allura blinked, looking sad. “I… sorry, Lance, but I need to be getting back.”

“Oh, yeah! Of course. I wouldn’t wanna keep you…”

But Allura was already walking away, Romelle glaring after her with her hands on her hips. She and Hunk looked at each other, nodded, grabbed one of Lance’s shoulders, and all but tossed him towards Allura.

He almost fell flat on his face before his super Paladin reflexes saved him and forced himself upright. Spinning around, he forced himself to make eye contact with Allura this time and smiled. “Actually! I was wondering if, ah, if you want to, you could, um, have dinner with me tonight? Me a-and my family!” he quickly added.

_Okay, that wasn’t so bad._

Allura, blessedly, smiled. “That sounds wonderful, Lance, but…” the cheer fell from her face. “I can’t. My apologies.”

“Allura! You cannot keep driving yourself up the wall with this!” Romelle insisted.

Hunk slid in next to her. “You need a _break._ Just some time to breath before the next round of crazy inevitably hits. We’re worried about you.”

“If anything does… happen, you will be one of the first to know,” Romelle added, souring a bit. “I promise. It’ll be good to get away for a night and clear your head!”

“Right! Yeah!” Lance almost smacked himself for nearly yelling. “All that stuff she said, totally!”

Hunk hit his head against the wall.

Looking hesitant, Allura glanced away. “… I suppose dinner would be nice…”

She looked up to him and beamed shyly, and Lance almost fainted. “I’d love to.”

_Wait. Did she- what the cheese. Did that really happen? Am I tripping?_

“Really? Awesome! Okay! Later tonight, then! Yes!” he got out.

Hunk’s big hand on his shoulder pulled him back to the present. “Okay, Loverboy Lance. Now walk away before she changes her mind…”

<> 

_“Mom holy shit!”_

_“Qué?_ Lance?”

“Dinner! Princess Allura! Date! AHHHH!”

_“Tú novía? Al final?”_

_“Mama, no! Ella no es mi novía!_ It’s just a… friendly dinner!” Lance cried.

“You can’t fool me, _hijo._ Go get changed and help me with dinner!” His Mama, a tall, formidable woman, pointed her spatula at him sternly, but the twinkle in her eyes gave her away. From upstairs, a loud thump traveled through the ceiling, followed by Rachel and Veronica all but tumbling down the stairs to greet them.

“Is it true?” Veronica shouted.

Rachel scoffed and flipped her long brown hair. “I can’t believe _Lance_ got a date before me! _So_ not fair. Did you blackmail her?”

“The Garrison has like, no gay girls. Don’t worry, _hermanita._ We’ll find a proper woman for you in space!” Veronica announced.

“I’ll get you a girlfriend if you get me a girlfriend. That way we all have girlfriends!”

Lance almost fell over. “Whoa whoa whoa! When did this happen? You both are…?”

“Um, Rachel’s been wearing cargo shorts and flannels since the sixth grade and I have the bisexual bob. We’re gay.” Veronica raised a brow at him, the classic _Are you serious, Lance?_

 _Holy moly, everybody I know is gay. This is amazing._ “Nice!”

His sisters grinned at him before grabbing his arms and all but dragging him up the stairs. Marco nodded to him from his own room and lifted a joint in celebration of his victory.

They all ended up sitting on the floor of Rachel’s room, gossiping about the friends they had made and doing face masks, just like they did back in Cuba. For maybe an hour, Lance let himself forget the rest of the world in favor of enjoying the company of his sisters.

It wasn’t until he was almost done with his pedicure that his phone rang and Keith’s ID came up on the screen.

He grinned and tossed the nail file over his head before rolling over to grab it.

“Keith! My man, my number one, how’s it going?”

_“Um, I dunno. Back in the fight against Sendak, do you remember that weird moment in the astral plane where we were both with the Black Lion?”_

Rachel and Veronica turned to stare at him.

“Astral realm… Black Lion?” Then it hit him. “Oh, yeah! That was weird. What about it?”

 _“What were you thinking about before that?”_ Keith asked.

“Damn, I dunno, that was forever ago.”

Keith huffed. _“Ugh. I’m trying everything I can with Black, but they won’t listen to me! Are you sure you don’t remember anything else?”_

“No, I don’t! Don’t put this on me, mister! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with Allura and I gotta get dressed because I’m pretty much naked right now!” Lance barked.

_“You- what? Date?”_

Lance swallowed. “Uh, yeah.”

_“… Oh. Okay. Bye.”_

“… Bye.”

He hung up.

Veronica and Rachel looked at him, back at each other, and sighed.

Lance glared at them and crossed his arms. “What?”

“Nothing!” Rachel sighed.

Veronica just made a face as she did her eyeliner.

Another hour passed, Lance went to help with the food before coming back up to plan his outfit. He settled on a sweater, button-up shirt and khakis. That wasn’t too fuckboy-esque, right?

Right.

He was just about to clean up his room a little before the doorbell rang and every atom in his body combusted.

 _“Showtime!”_ Rachel and Veronica blasted past him and thundered down the stairs. Lance followed on shaky legs, feeling very much like a newborn deer.

She was waiting for him by the entrance, talking with his mother about something, but he didn’t really pay attention to what.

“… Doesn’t she, Lance?” his Mama finished.

_Wait, what? Oh, yeah, the real world!_

“Whoa! You look… amazing,” he got out, even though there were no words in either languages he spoke that could sum up the ethereal image before him.

Allura wore a simple white dress and sandals, her luxurious starlight hair flowing freely down her back in waves. She was neither of Earth or of space for that moment, simply present in Lance’s home like in so many of his dreams. It was impossible, and yet it was really happening.

“You look nice, too!” Allura smiled at him, blue eyes glowing faintly. “Oh, dear, we better not mention this to Coran, he might have a fit!”

“I’ll take it to my grave,” he promised.

They stared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. The tension finally left the air, and his Mama patted Allura’s hand before leading her to the dining room, where the rest of his family was waiting.

“Allura, this is my family. You know Veronica, and that’s Rachel and my brother Marco, and my Papa, my other brother Luis, his wife Lisa and his kids Silvio and Nadia,” he announced, sweeping a hand before them for dramatic effect.

His Papa clapped his hands together in excitement. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Princess Allura! Please, have a seat. As Rachel likes to say, _showtime!”_

<> 

“-or back when we were kids and Veronica mixed mud with water and told Lance it was chocolate milk!” Marco finished, much to his chagrin.

“Oh, yeah! I still can’t believe he fell for that!” Veronica guffawed. Lance glared at her, silently swearing revenge for this entire evening. Veronica, of course, just tossed her head and sipped her water like a royal.

Allura was giggling so hard she was bent over her plate, white hair falling everywhere. “What did he do?”

“Told on me, of course! Then Papa gave him ice cream and I got none.”

“Yeah, Lance was always the baby of the family. It only took you coming to dinner to finally graduate him to the adult table!” Marco teased.

From the kids’ table with Nadia and Silvio, Rachel gave him the stink-eye.

“Speaking of dates…” Veronica began. “Maybe you could put in a good word for me with that long-haired friend of yours?”

Lance felt his jaw hit the floor and his hands begin flailing. _“Keith?!_ No! Nonononononono! Hahahaha, _no!”_

Veronica smirked at him, and he almost flipped his plate into her face. That brat _knew_ what she was doing! As _if!_

“All he cares about is fighting and knives! And his hair sucks! One time, we were fighting in the training deck on the Castle of Lions and I tickled him on accident and he almost slit my throat! _And_ he kicked me in the nuts!” he wailed.

“Interesting.”

He was aware of his Mama and Allura talking about something, but he wasn’t finished yet. “He keeps running off on me, too. One time he didn’t want to be a Paladin anymore so he joined this super shady organization called the Blades of Marmora- you met Kolivan, right? So yeah, he ran off with them to play ninjas and pirates or whatever, and he left me! Left! Me! There were months at a time I didn’t know if he was even _alive!_ That stupid mullet,” he seethed.

Man, that _still_ hurt to think about. Dumb Keith.

Veronica poked absently at her plate. “You should probably talk to him about that.”

 _That_ threw him off guard. “Huh?”

Veronica grabbed her glass and stood. “A toast! To family.”

 _“To family!”_ The McClains roared, and Lance joined in as they all enthusiastically clacked their glasses together with enough force to chip his glass.

He looked over to Allura, realizing she had missed out on the toast, but she was just staring into empty space with lonely blue eyes.

_She doesn’t have her family._

Lance stared out the window to the stars above. Until dinner was finished, he didn’t talk, and he and Allura sat together in silence.

They were quick to slip out of the house once everything settled down. The night air wrapped around Lance like a cool blanket, evaporating his tension like steam from a pot. Crickets chirped from the dry grass all around them and filled the breeze with song. The moon hung overhead, illuminating the night with silver, a careful observer to the world below.

 _Does the moon feel bad for Earth?_ he wondered.

He and Allura walked side by side to the old courtyard. She seemed a million miles away, in another reality entirely. She was like the moon, he thought morosely. Beautiful, yet unattainable. Comforting, but lost.

Lance longed to draw her in back to Earth. “This place used to be so beautiful,” he told her as they approached the huge dead oak in the center of the court.

Something shifted in Allura. She shook her head, as if trying to fling the thoughts from her head. “I just wish we could have gotten here sooner. We did all we could to speed our way here, and yet… it was not enough.”

“I feel the same way,” he murmured. “But, Allura? All of this? This entire journey we’ve shared, I wouldn’t have given it up for anything.”

She moved past him, as if drawn to something he couldn’t see. A slender brown hand lifted and pressed against the trunk of the oak. The other relaxed at her side.

A soft hum filled the back of his mind, something huge and foreign making itself known from their reality. Lance’s eyes widened, and then he stared as the spot Allura was touching began to glow.

The humming increased, with an underlying purr beneath it. Red? It didn’t sound like Red.

White light filled the area, radiating out from Allura like the sun had come to Earth. His jaw dropped as it spread up the great oak, springing forth leaves and insects and moss. It traveled through the ground in invisible waves, and wherever it touched, life returned. Flowers bloomed in seconds and unfurled their petals to the moon. A golden moth fluttered by him, looping in circles as if in joy. Dead brown grass turned green and healthy.

The song of rebirth sighed, and at last ceased.

His chest ached, and he realized he had forgotten to breathe. A huge smile made its way across the face, and he laughed, awestruck.

“When we were up there, fighting against the Galra, I somehow felt like we… like we were family,” Allura said softly. “Each of us was alone. But we were alone together, and now that you all have returned to Earth… I see that everyone already has a family and a home to return to once this war is over. Everyone except me. And for the first time… I feel uncertain. Uncertain about what my future holds. I wish to think about just myself, for once, but now that I actually have the courage to do so, I am at a loss for words.”

Lance exhaled. “Allura, you are not alone. And if I have anything to say about it, you’ll never be alone. We’re going to go back up there, and we’re going to figure everything out, together. I… I know that this might just be a one-time thing, but I have to say this, just in case.”

Allura strode towards him. For a second, Lance couldn’t even speak.

“Allura, I-“

A hand on his chest stops him.

Allura looked away from him, jaw tense and brows furrowed tightly together. When she spoke, it was barely more than a whisper.

“No, Lance. I can’t let you say that to me.”

He blinked. “W-What? What do you mean?”

“Lance, I’ve watched you grow and grow since the moment I met you, far beyond what I thought was possible for even an Altean. I saw you become a powerful leader when others tried to cast you aside, myself included. I watched in awe as you put aside your own needs for the needs of others, even at great cost to yourself, time after time… and truly, among all of the Paladins, it is _you_ who has impressed me the most. You have grown to embody the might of the ocean, the ferocity of a fire and you have singlehandedly scorched your name into the stars themselves.”

“Allura…”

“But in my admiration, I confused that respect and friendship for love,” she confessed. “Oh, Lance, I care for you so much. But we were never meant to be together. You are _human._ Your life will be short but oh so glorious, while I am fated to stand back and watch as you and so many others across the universe pass away into the afterlife for many more millennia.”

Lance felt hot and cold at the same time. Was he going into shock? “You… no?”

“No,” she confirmed gently.

Behind him, somewhere in the distance, a coyote howled into the night.

He felt the sharp pain of rejection, and it hurt. It hurt like hell. Allura was right. They couldn’t be together. It simply… it simply could not happen.

“You deserve somebody who will love you back, unafraid to do so. Somebody who will match your ambition and fire and ice. And that person…” she sighed. “That person cannot be me.”

The pain intensified, but underneath it came another emotion. It was so out of place, so unexpected that at first he didn’t know what it was. It soothed the hurt and calmed his stuttering heart. All at once, he calmed down.

Lance clasped his hand over Allura’s and dipped his head in acknowledgement, to her and to his own mind.

Relief.

His eyes stopped stinging, and while the pain of loss still made his chest ache it wasn’t at all unbearable. It was simply the pain of being alive.

“I understand,” he told her. “Thank you.”

Allura smiled. The stars twinkled in her eyes. “And thank you. Please know that it hurts me to turn anything away from you, Lance, but I… I couldn’t do such a thing to you.”

He laughed, and it was genuine. “Well, I _am_ pretty irresistible.”

“Oh, you scoundrel!”

They both burst out laughing, and for the first time that evening, Lance knew everything was going to be okay.

He must have thought too soon, because the sound of hurried footsteps made them both turn around in alarm. It was Veronica, eyes wide and worrying.

“Veronica! What’s wrong?” he demanded as she skidded to a halt.

She looked up at them with her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. When she spoke, Lance needed no more clarification, even with her two simple words.

“He’s awake.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all already know what's coming up next chapter. ;)
> 
> During the dinner scene you may find a quick reference to "The SpotTM" lol
> 
> And hurray for Lance and Allura Talking Shit Out!


	12. Launch Date: Part Two

Allura could _feel_ him, through walls and doors, through the space that separated them. She always could, in a way, even after they just met. His mere presence in her castle-ship was electric, tantalizing. It only grew stronger from there and she knew he felt the same way as time carried on. It was how he moved, the way he followed her with the slightest tilt of his head. It was in the quick flick of an ear whenever she entered a room, a glint of gold-and-blue eyes that made her toes curl in her boots.

She did the exact same things around him.

When she and Lance burst into the room, barely given a few minutes to change before Veronica was banging on the door and yelling that they had to go, she locked him into her sight immediately. He was twitching, eyelids flickering rapidly as if he was in REM sleep. Claws unsheathed and retracted in a tick’s time. Slowly, but surely, he was waking up.

Allura made her way over to him before sitting in the chair by his bedside. It was the same one she had spent most of the last two months in.

Veronica had informed him that he had begun to lift out of the coma around four in the afternoon, and then abruptly burst into consciousness at four-forty-two. He had panicked, yelling something about a witch before calming down when he saw the obviously human scientists. Apparently, the emperor had been very polite, asking where he was and if he could have some privacy to change into something clean. They all talked for a little bit while a nurse fetched some specially-made pajamas. The scientists obliged with his earlier request about privacy and left him alone with the instruction to call for help if he needed aid. When they came back in he had already passed out once more.

_Typical Lotor._

Said Galra-Altean made a soft noise in his sleep as he stirred. He swallowed, shifting around, and eventually settled back down. Just as Allura began to think that he had fallen back into a deeper sleep, lashes parted to reveal a familiar golden gaze. It fixated on her almost immediately. Lotor inhaled sharply and tensed.

Time and space froze and dropped away, leaving just the two of them in oblivion. He watched her with the same regard a cosmonaut would look upon a black hole; acknowledging an incredible threat and yet continuing on as if nothing was happening. Allura swallowed, her throat feeling dry. This was the man who she had fallen for so deeply, who she made love with in the quintessence rift during their last time together, the broken body who she had watched over while he slept for what had seemed like forever.

He was bony and weak, with dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in decaphoebs. The pajamas he wore were fresh, though, and Allura noted the medical staff must have given them to him after he woke up. Silver-white hair was dirty, unkept from the coma. He rested on the mattress in a half-curled up position, as if he was attempting to shield himself but did not have the strength to do so.

She finally forced herself to blink and look away.

Also in the room with her and Lotor were the Paladins, Shiro, and Coran. They all stood in a semicircle before the former prince, arms crossed or at their sides. Keith was tapping at something on his thigh- his bayard, Allura realized. They were all armed.

_Ancients, give me the strength._

“… Lotor,” she finally began, forcing herself to meet his eyes again. “I… I am glad you woke up.”

He stared at her with an unreadable expression closing over his face. There was a couple ticks of silence, and then he opened his mouth to speak.

And proceeded to throw up into the bucket one of the nurses had so thoughtfully placed beside the bed.

Allura was on her feet in a flash, gathering thick white hair into her hands to keep it out of harm’s way. Lotor coughed as his entire body seized with the effort of expelling the waste, the sound thick and pained. He sucked in air between fits, sounding nearly out of breath, until the entirety of the contents of his stomach appeared to have been successfully emptied.

The former emperor slumped back to the mattress soon after, breathing heavily. Curling up halfway, he managed to raise his head to look up at her.

“How-,” he broke off to cough again. “How much damage?”

“Pardon?”

“Damage. Komar. Any casualties?”

Allura stared down at him, stunned. “N-No. No casualties. Damage was restricted to Voltron and the surrounding desert in which we fought. ”

Lotor made a sound of relief. He shook his head, muttering a short prayer of thanks to the Eldest Gods. “That is all I could have asked for.”

“All you could have- dude! Why the hell did you attack Earth?” Lance demanded, glaring at Lotor with a twitch in his eye.

 _“I_ did not. The witch had me as her puppet in that thrice-damned machine. It was all I could do to restrain it from completely obliterating that other ship of yours.” Lotor met Lance’s gaze evenly, even though he kept low to the bed in a defensive posture.

Allura stiffened.

<> 

_She hit the ground running and leapt right at the mech with a roar. It raised its scythe, ready to strike, and then…_

_It didn’t._

_She almost halted in her tracks._

_The entire machine seemed to be seizing up, almost as if it were resisting some otherworldly force. The scythe trembled in the mech’s hands. It swayed unsteadily, dirt and sand kicked up by shuffling footsteps._

_The moment was broken by a heavy blast right to its chest._

_“Need some backup?” Adam Wahid asked smugly._

_“Thank you, Adam!” she gasped, pulling away from the mech as it got enveloped in fire. Blue eagerly shot into the sky as the Atlas focused all of its efforts into pummeling the mysterious robot into the ground._

<> 

“You… that was _you!_ I attacked you directly that one time, and you stopped it, didn’t you?” Allura exclaimed. Her hands clenched into fists as confusion and anger and amazement washed over her in never-ending waves.

Lotor dipped his head in agreement.

 _“Why?_ To totally _not_ address the elephant in the room, the last time we saw each other we were trying to kill you and vice versa, because you more or less committed genocide” Pidge snapped. “Why were you even in that thing?”

The Galran narrowed his eyes at her, anger heating his glare. “Are you ready to finally listen to my entire tale, Paladins? Or shall I just prepare myself to get tossed into the rift once more the moment I open my mouth to tell _my_ side of the story?”

A thick knot rose in Allura’s throat, and she swallowed. Beside Keith, Shiro looked away, obviously uncomfortable.

“Tell us everything, Lotor. We won’t interrupt you until you’re finished.”

She turned to look at Lance.

There was something about him that almost suggested he was… afraid. His arms were crossed protectively in front of his chest, feet shoulder-width apart as if ready for combat. Blue eyes were wide with… guilt? The others stared at him with open surprise, obviously confused as to why Lance was handing the former prince the chance to explain himself.

Lotor raised his brows at him. “I’m impressed, Paladin. I’ll begin with why I was in that komar.”

Slowly, Allura lowered herself back into the chair.

Lotor watched her carefully. “I have not had the time to fully put all of the pieces together, but I figured out not long after I escaped from Hagger that she had pulled me from the rift. I woke up in her lab, the excess quintessence completely drained from me and feeling quite ill. As soon as I was sure I was alone I escaped out the ventilation shaft and made my way to the hangar. As I was about to sneak in and steal a ship, I ran into a young pilot by the name of Luca. She was on her way to pilot the komar, and while we were both delighted to see each other after so long, not to mention she thought I was dead, I had to warn her of the witch. She heeded my warning, as she had long suspecting not all was well with Hagger, and we devised a plan for me to escape. The fate of the colony could very well depend on me finding Voltron and bringing them back to destroy Haggar once and for all.”

 _“What?”_ Hunk exclaimed. “So Hon- _Haggar_ took over the colony and is what? Going to take over the universe or something?”

“Yes.”

The simple answer stunned Allura. She sat back and stared at Lotor, unable to believe what she was hearing. “What does she have to gain by doing that?”

He shrugged. “From what Luca told me, she intends to bring all of our reality under her control. She wants to create a perfect empire. No more suffering, no more wars. May I continue?”

“… Yeah,” Shiro said quietly.

“We snuck to the komar, somehow evading detection, and Luca got me in. Just before I was about to take off, the alarms started up. Luca told me to go, and she would clear the way for me in a komar of her own. Somehow I got the blasted thing off the ground and into space, with Haggar’s fighters in hot pursuit. I could not fight back, as I knew not of this komar’s full abilities and could not risk injuring the pilots, and so Luca bravely pushed them back before heading off to find my second colony, as per my earlier instructions.”

“Isn’t that where y-“

“Ssh, Keith.”

Lotor glared at them but continued. “I was barely out of the quantum abyss before Haggar took over my mind, as I remember nothing from then until I could regain some semblance of control on Earth. I also assume that it was her that put me into the coma.”

“And why should we believe that?” Keith demanded.

“Allura,” he said, and her heart flipped over in her chest. “You are free to examine my mind for psychic damage after I am done speaking. You will know then I am telling the truth.”

Their eyes remained locked for what felt like eternity. Everything and nothing passed between them, a void filling the space between their bodies.

Finally, Lotor broke away. “And that is how I escaped and found you.”

There was a painful moment of silence. Allura stared at her fists in her lap, the immeasurable tension from before filling the room twofold and threatening to suffocate her.

“Why did you care so much about not hurting those pilots if that’s what you did at your other colony?” Keith spat. “Why care about those lives, but not others?”

Lotor reeled back. White fangs flashed in rage, and his claws dug into the sheets. “Again, you know _nothing_ of which you speak! Perhaps if you all had taken the time to listen before everything went to chaos we could have avoided this entire situation!”

Allura’s own anger flared. “Why?”

 _“Why?_ Do you not think I blame myself for every death that occurred at my hands? Despite your valiant attempts to explain it to me, _Princess,_ I know very well that everything I did to protect our people was not good enough!” His voice shook, and with a jolt of shock Allura realized he was being overcome with grief.

“…What are you talking about?” Lance asked.

“I will ask you again,” Lotor stated hoarsely. “Are you finally ready to listen to everything I have to say?”

This time, the question was directed right at her.

Allura realized she had sprung out of her chair in her anger and sat back down.

“Pray, tell,” she whispered.

Lotor let himself collapse back to the mattress, looking utterly exhausted, but continuing on. “After the destruction of Altea and Daibazaal… stars, I couldn’t have been more than a century old at the time. The Galran Empire was already a rising force in the universe. Entire galaxies were falling left and right. When I wasn’t running around like a lunatic trying to minimize the damage done by my father, I studied my Altean heritage, getting my hands on everything I possibly could. And so the thought began to form: if artifacts of Altea still remained, surely some of its people did so as well?”

She and the others listened in silence.

“When I was certain enough of my father’s attention was focused elsewhere for the time being, I left. I searched far and wide, and sure enough, I found them.” He huffed softly, looking like he was relieving the joy of that moment. “Merchants. Defected soldiers. Refugees. Scientists who had been off-planet on expeditions. Together, we formed the first colony on Pollux. I chose carefully, so that the Galra would never know of them, and for many more decaphoebs we scoured the universe for more survivors. For a while… things were wonderful. Slowly, but surely, we rebuilt everything they lost to the best of our ability. But it was not to last,” said Lotor, the smile falling from his face.

“Deep in the quantum abyss as we were, we were well hidden, but I knew that we would not be safe forever. I needed a plan to protect the people. Around that time, I discovered Altean alchemy, and my quest began.”

Allura tensed.

He continued, their gazes meeting for a milli-tick before separating. “I knew only some Alteans possessed the gene that allowed the potential for magical manipulation. Some scientists and I discovered how to detect that gene with a simple skin cell sample, and off we went. We spent another century or so working on weapons for our new military. Except, this military would not be fought only with machine and blood. It would also be fought with alchemy: the lost art of Altea. From that, the first version of the komar came to be.”

“You would need magic to fight Haggar,” Hunk murmured.

Lotor blinked in recognition. “Indeed, we would. My cosmonauts and I set off into the quantum abyss to find more suitable planets, and when we did, I started my second colony. From there, I created several more outposts to defend it and Pollux.”

Pidge’s eyes widened. “There were _more?”_

“There were. Nine in all, in fact. And just in time, too. A stray Galra fleet all but ran into the base on Verlon one day and started attacking upon realizing what they happened upon. I rushed over from Pollux and joined the fight as soon as I heard, but I needed not to. The komar pilots won with no immediate casualties.”

“Immediate?” Shiro asked.

A shaky exhale escaped Lotor’s mouth. “The komars were incredible machines. Just a couple of them could wipe out many battleships. But what we had not anticipated was the effect it would have on the pilots.”

Allura felt her stomach begin to churn.

“They ran on their pilots’ quintessence, much like the Lions of Voltron. But they needed too much to function, and we discovered that at a horrible price. The pilots…” Lotor clenched his jaw. “The two who were still alive, we rushed them to the medical ward and did everything we could to replenish all the quintessence they had lost piloting their komars. One of them, a bold young man named Agerio… it was too late for him. He died in my arms.”

Lotor took a long breath, and Allura watched, at a loss for words.

“The second pilot, her name was Juna. She died soon after Agerio. We waited for the last pilot to perish, horrified at what had just happened, but then she… didn’t. Pillan healed with the quintessence treatment, and although she was weak and dazed when she woke up, she went on to make a full recovery. I told her she more than deserved an early retirement, but you couldn’t stop that girl. She was back in action not a decaphoeb later,” Lotor chuckled.

“Wait…” Lance said suddenly, brows furrowed. “You didn’t drain that quintessence from the Alteans. The _komars_ did?”

The Galran stared at him. “Why… why would… well, yes. The komars’ only design flaw was that they drained too much quintessence from their pilots. Treatment with quintessence was the only thing that could save them, but it didn’t work nearly as often as I hoped it would.”

“Uh… nevermind. Continue? Please?”

“… After that incident, we did everything we could to eliminate that design flaw in the komars, with varying degrees of success. My engineers and I spent centuries on it, but all we could figure out was to lessen the impact on the pilots by stocking the komars with whatever raw quintessence we could get. It wasn’t perfect, but it decreased the number of pilot deaths by ninety-four-point-two percent. Too many battles passed where we did not give those awful machines enough. The fact that _witch_ figured out how to draw energy from an opponent’s quintessence field without destroying itself is… nearly beyond my comprehension.” Lotor shook his head disbelievingly.

“How many?”

Golden eyes locked with hers. “Allura?”

“How many died?”

He shut his eyes. “… One hundred and fifty-four. Over ten-thousand years… we lost so many. I mentored most of them myself. They…” His voice began to break again. “Every time I close my eyes, I see them. If only I could have told them that I was sorry…”

A horrible fear rose up within her. Her heartbeat raced faster and faster. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pidge began to shake. Keith’s eyes were wide as saucers. Shiro looked absolutely devasted, and Hunk was losing color in his face.

“How come Pollux never heard of this?” Lance asked. He looked deadly calm, but Allura knew him well enough to see the growing panic just behind the mask.

“If Pollux knew how often we were being attacked, there would be panic. Perhaps it was selfish of me but… I… I wanted them to know as little as possible, for their own safety. I wanted them to be _happy._ Looking back, I know I should have just told them, but I… there was nothing I could have done to lessen the horror of the fact that the Empire would have wiped them out without a second thought,” the former prince whispered.

Dead silence.

“And every pilot knew that it was dangerous? They knew what could happen?”

Lotor balked, anger taking over his expression once more. “Well, I should hope I told them everything! What, do you think I sent people off to their deaths while I sat around and twiddled my thumbs? And not all of them were pilots. Many became engineers, mentors, caretakers in the medical ward. It was their _home.”_

Lance started to shake. “Oh, God. Oh, fuck. _Fuck.”_

“Lotor…” Allura managed to say. There wasn’t nearly enough air in the room for her to breathe. Oh, _Ancients,_ she was going to pass out. “You…”

That awful fight came back to her in full force. Rage had made her insane, had her scream all sorts of terrible things at him, filled her entire being with seething hatred so intense she saw red. Surely, she wasn’t remembering it right. Her mind was playing tricks on her!

“Allura? What is it?” Lotor demanded, rigid with alarm. “Allura!”

Everything hit her at once.

_“They were matyrs for a noble cause.”_

_“Lotor is a_ monster!”

_“You are more like Zarkon than I could have ever imagined!”_

_“It is true. Many perished…”_

_“We were meant to be together!”_

It all blended together in a swirling mass. Cursed energy, lashing swords, laser fire across their grief-stricken battlefield. Hurled accusations and begging and heartbreak.

A wretched gasp raised her shoulders and scraped through her stinging lungs.

No. No! **_No!_**

Reality snapped back into focus when she saw Lotor’s expression slowly change from confusion to a mask of fury and grief. He looked up at her with those broken golden eyes that stabbed through her very soul, shattering her into countless pieces.

“You thought I willingly took those lives, didn’t you? Your Red Paladin said so himself. Everything we built together, everything _we_ had…” Lotor broke off, mouth twisting in a grimace. “All that time we shared, and all it took was one pretty, _full-blooded_ Altean face to take back your trust.”

“Please, Lotor, she did what she thought was right!” Shiro begged.

Lotor shut his eyes. “My quarrel is _not_ with Romelle. I agree with you wholeheartedly that the girl wished nothing more than to protect and avenge her people. When we are finished here, I would like for one of you to tell her that I would like to have a talk with her. There is an important matter I wish to talk about one-on-one.”

“I can’t promi-“

“My quarrel is with _you,_ Princess. Say what you will about my colonies, but at least I never forced _anyone_ to take up arms in my name, much less four _children_ and a former prisoner of war! But I digress. Tell your Garrison officials that there is much to discuss as soon as I am well enough to keep myself conscious for more than a quarter-varga,” Lotor spat.

Allura’s vision spun. “I… yes.”

“Thank you. Now. _Get out of my sight.”_

She looked back at her human companions. Their eyes were glazed and distant, For the first time, it struck her how _old_ they looked, even little Pidge. The girl had tears running down her face, as she had not yet bothered to wipe them away.

Slowly, she rose from her chair and followed them out of the room. She looked back at Lotor before she did so, and before Shiro shut the door behind them she caught the former emperor’s shoulders shaking as he silently wept.

The six of them stood in the corridor in silence for at least a full dobosh.

“We ruined everything, didn’t we?” Lance asked, finally breaking down in tears. “Oh, _God_ , we _broke_ him. I thought I hated that guy but…”

“The entire Galran Empire is shattered because of what we did,” Keith whispered. Pidge turned to Shiro and clung to him, taking deep, gulping breaths. The former Black Paladin held her shoulders tightly as if he was afraid to let her go. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to.

“He was right about everything.”

Allura turned to look at Hunk. The boy was trembling, jaw clenched as he tried and failed to keep himself calm, and her entire world finally came apart around her as she sank to her knees.

He didn’t respond to that, or even when Lance put a shaky hand on his arm. “He was right about us. This is _all our fault._ We thought we could just… _kill him_ because we had the strength to do so. We’re not gods. We’re not some super powerful team of vengeful heroes or whatever. We’re just a bunch of broken kids in a war _nobody_ is going to win.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaddap I cried a little writing this lmao


	13. Launch Date, Part Three

To say that Hunk was devastated didn’t even cover it.

He probably scared the shit out of his parents when he stumbled back into their apartment at two in the morning, crying miserably and not even wanting to talk to them. Amosa and Sally watched from their rooms as he stumbled down the hallway to his own bed before he caught them talking worriedly amongst themselves. His Mama’s voice washed quietly over him as he flopped down on the mattress, but it did little to soothe him, even as he heard his siblings return to their beds and the light switches flick off.

A shadow fell over him and a strong hand covered his shoulder. Hunk turned to see his Mom looking down at him with concern-filled eyes, and the sight made his gut wrench with guilt. _He_ wasn’t the one who deserved to be comforted, not when Lotor suffered so badly just a few floors down and a corridor or two to the left.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

He shook his head.

A soft pair of lips brushed his forehead, like they had so many times growing up, and he felt her presence depart from him.

The darkness of his bedroom swallowed him, and he gratefully sank into the quiet oblivion. For several long minutes he just laid there, face buried in his pillows, and let the grief and regret wash over him in waves.

How could he have let this happen? _He_ was the diplomat of Voltron, the shield, the steady rock on which his friends could lean on. The way he had acted when Romelle had come to the Castle of Lions and accused Lotor of genocide... and then in the rift, when he had screamed for blood, _Lotor’s_ blood, the joy of having the power to _hurt_ surging through his veins. That wasn’t him. Hunk Garret-Tsuyoshi never wanted to hurt anybody.

But because he did, Voltron’s old friend laid half-dead in the medical bay and the Galra Empire in ruins. A little voice in the back of his mind taunted him for that.

_Isn’t this what you wanted?_

All of the planets that relied on the Galra would be screwed in one way or the other. The universal currency established by the Empire would cause entire galaxies to go bankrupt as it slowly ran out. Factions would war non-stop with each other over territory and resources and precious lives would be lost in the crossfire. Galra like Sendak would take advantage of the chaos and grab everything they could in the name of glory, the metaphorical apocalypse of their reality be damned.

Hunk shot straight up as a horrible thought hit his brain like a sledgehammer.

_Was Sendak able to attack Earth… because of what we did?_

He couldn’t take it anymore. One of his pillows fell to the floor with a _thump_ as he launched himself out of bed to pace the room like a madman. The walls seemed to close in on him in the darkness.

Yanking off his uniform- God, he hated that thing- Hunk grabbed his favorite hoodie and sweatpants and left his bedroom.

Years of war had trained him to not make a sound when he moved if he could help it, even while walking around the Castle of Lions, and so he was able to slip out of the apartment without disturbing anyone or anything.

Hunk shut the door behind him, turned to head down the corridor- to do what, he still didn’t know, and nearly smacked right into Pidge.

She gave a surprised grunt, looking as fatigued as Hunk felt. Their eyes met, and she relaxed a little when she recognized who she had ran into.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Her voice was hoarse. “Can’t sleep?”

“Nope. I just… I’m gonna walk around, I guess.”

“Cool. I’m coming with you.”

Hunk smiled a little at that, and they headed off.

They ended up sneaking into the kitchen to see what they could find. Hunk automatically gravitated towards the fridge, and he yanked it open to have a look, and upon finding bagels and jelly he decided to make himself and Pidge some food.

He popped the bagels in the toaster and rummaged around the fridge some more to find peanut butter. Unfortunately, there was none, probably because all of the peanut farms had been razed to the ground during the Galra invasion. Hunk shut the door with a sigh and started opening and closing drawers until he found the butter knives. Grabbing one, he set it down next to the toaster. The timer on it read 2:34 and counting down. He stared at it as the numerals changed to 2:30, 2:29, 2:28…

It was painfully silent in the abandoned kitchen.

“Hunk?”

“… Yeah?”

Pidge’s voice was small as she turned to look at him, brown eyes so much older than sixteen. “Do you really think we’re broken?”

Words and thoughts jumbled around in his mind, chaotic and overwhelmed and grieving, until he found his tongue. “I… yeah. This war fucked us all up whether we know it or not.”

“… Maybe that’s why we did what we did. Maybe everything we been through made us lash out at Lotor at the first sign that he might have not been who we thought he was.”

The Galran emperor’s name hung heavy in the air. It soured Hunk’s mouth, and he swallowed.

Were they turning bad? He wouldn’t be surprised. They had all killed lots of people, even if they had been their enemies, even if they hadn’t wanted to. All he and his friends had were each other, a bunch of lonely kids out in space with no idea what they had just gotten themselves into.

The toaster dinged and the bagel slices popped out. Hunk grabbed them from the slots and slathered some jelly on them before handing one to Pidge, who took a small bite and munched halfheartedly. He sat down heavily across from her and did the same.

Pidge set her bagel down, staring blankly at it as if it held all the answers to their predicament. “We have to talk to him.”

Hunk almost dropped his bagel. _“Talk to him?_ Oh yeah, that’ll go over well. ‘Hey, sorry we tried to kill you and left you for dead in the quintessence rift because some chick told us you were bonkers. Wanna be pals again?’”

“Well, we have to _try!”_ Pidge snapped. “Even if it gets me a bunch of claws in my eye sockets, I’m gonna own up to it! It’s the right thing to do.”

“I know.” Hunk pushed his plate around, trying to ignore the anxiety resurfacing in his stomach. “It just doesn’t seem like it’ll be worth anything.”

“… Yeah.” Pidge sat back, her temper cooling as the exhaustion set back in.

He looked over at her, wondering at how much she had changed during their time as Paladins. She had gained a few inches in height but had developed a lot more muscle than he thought possible for a twig like Pidge. A faint scar ran up the side of her neck, a result of not getting out of the way fast enough before getting hit with a piece of shrapnel.

“We need to go back to bed. We’ll deal with this shit tomorrow,” Pidge grunted before hopping off the stool. With an exhale of agreement, Hunk followed her out of the kitchen. Man, all he wanted to do for the next ten years was sleep.

They turned the corner to head back to their respective apartments, but didn’t get much farther than that when they ran into none other than Colleen Holt.

The woman glared down at Pidge with her hands on her hips. “I was wondering where you ran off to. Did you forget you were grounded, young lady?”

Even before Hunk could glance over he knew Pidge would be having none of it.

“Mom, our planet is pretty much dead and the universe is in shambles. I got my first period in the cockpit of the Green Lion. I fought a war. I killed a lot of people while fighting said war. Why do you think that I care about you grounding me?”

“Don’t say that!”

Pidge laughed. “Say what? That I killed people? I did the calculations like a year ago, and if each Galra cruiser carries around seven-hundred personnel-“

Hunk blanched. _“Pidge.”_

“Okay, okay, fine.”

“Katie, you…” Colleen managed, raising a hand as if she wanted to reach for her daughter, but Pidge just shoved her off and stormed down the hallway. A short moment later, the sound of a slamming door made Hunk wince.

Colleen stared after her, face taught with grief. She looked back at him, as if he could offer an answer to everything this new world had brought them, but Hunk just shook his head and trudged away.

He slipped back into his family’s apartment without a sound and shut the door behind him. For a minute he just stood there, waiting for his eyes to adjust so he didn’t run into anything before kicking off his shoes and making his way back to his bedroom. He collapsed into his bed, skull pounding with fatigue, before managing to pull the blankets up around him and closing his eyes.

Hunk wasn’t raised in a religious family. But as he drifted off to sleep, he prayed to whatever god or goddess who would listen to watch over Lotor.

<> 

The next day was when the true effects of the aftermath set in.

Hunk was woken up by the sound of people shouting outside his apartment. Senses immediately on high alert, he leapt out of bed and sprinted down the hall, almost running over his Dad when he came to see what was going on.

“-No, I don’t _care_ what that monster told you! You cannot trust anything he says, Lance, he’ll get all of us killed the first chance he gets!” A familiar, shrill voice shouted.

“You don’t have to believe me, Romelle. Just talk to him, and he can explain _everything!”_

Hunk wrenched open the door. “What the hell, people?”

Lance glanced over to him, looking pained. “Sorry, man.”

“Hunk, please tell me you haven’t fallen for this nonsense,” Romelle begged. Her blonde hair was wild, lavender eyes sharp with anger. Pale fists were clenched tight at her sides. “I confront Lance this morning about Lotor, only to hear that my people _willingly_ sacrificed themselves? Am I supposed to _believe_ this?!”

Hunk took a deep breath, the last remnants of sleep slowly falling away as his last three brain cells sensed a stressful situation. “Romelle, nobody sacrificed themselves. They fought in a war, knowing the risks, and there were casualties.”

 _“How could you say that?!_ What about my _brother?”_

“I. Don’t. Know!” It was Lance this time, and it was clear he was running out of patience. He had deep bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep. Brown hair curled up everywhere like he had rubbed his head all over a carpet. “That’s why you need to talk with Lotor. He knows what happened, not any of us.”

“And-And you just believe him? Just like that?” she spat.

Lance glared at her coldly. “I’m beginning to realize we shouldn’t have believed _you_ just like that back on the Castle of Lions. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t your fault. It’s ours. We should have all sat down to talk about it like sane people instead of starting a fight. But we can’t change the decision we made, and now we have to do everything we can to get the universe- and the Galran Empire- back on track.”

Romelle’s mouth hung open, speechless. “… I-I can’t.”

“You can’t what?”

“I can’t talk with him!”

“You can’t? Or you won’t?”

She broke off the intense staring contest she was having with Lance to gaze blearily into empty space. One slow second passed, then another.

With a whip of a messy braid, Romelle turned and stomped off.

Lance gave a long, low groan before scrubbing his face with his hands. “Christ Almighty. Sorry for waking you up with that.”

“Eh, it’s almost nine anyway. Do… do you know how everybody’s doing? With all of this?” Hunk asked tentatively.

“Shiro’s working out to fight off the sads, I think. Adam’s with him. Pidge is knocked out on my bed and shows no signs of life. Keith is throwing his knife at his bedroom wall in nothing but his boxers.” Lance swallowed, his face a little red. If Hunk hadn’t been in such a shitty mood he would have been all over that, but for now he let it go. “Uhhh… and Allura is… not doing well. I tried talking with her but she’s just…” He made some gestures with his hands before giving up and letting them fall against his thighs with a slap.

“What about you and her? I mean, it’s gotta be rough, knowing she still cares about…” Hunk couldn’t bring himself to say Lotor’s name.

He ended up blinking in surprise when Lance actually got out a short laugh. “It’s not like that, buddy. We had a fun evening, and then we decided we weren’t gonna be together. It just wouldn’t work out. My place is here on Earth. Allura’s is out there, probably with her people once this is all over.”

“… Oh.” Hunk was stunned. He had been nearly certain that this would have been the thing to finally get his best friend and the princess together, but… apparently not. “I’m sorry, man.”

“Nah, don’t be. We’ll be friends forever, and that will always be enough for me.” Lance smiled.

Hunk could have cried, he was so proud of him. His buddy was a tough little bastard.

He would have hyped Lance up for being such a legend, but they were interrupted by a loud flurry of barking and Keith yelling some impressive strings of profanity.

Bebe and Kosmo came barreling down the corridor together, snapping playfully and knocking against each other. Bebe didn’t even come up to the cosmic canine’s shoulder, but somehow managed to hold his ground in the furry wrestling match, using his shorter stature to dart underneath Kosmo’s belly and nip him.

Kosmo just huffed and sat on the terrier, tail still wagging. Poor Bebe found himself trapped underneath one-hundred-and-fifty pounds of wolf butt.

“IhatemylifeIhatemylifeIhatemylifeIhatemylife,” Keith hissed as he caught up to the dogs.

Lance started snickering. “Oh my God, Keith.”

“Kosmo! Get your huge ass off Bebe!” the Black Paladin screeched.

Kosmo’s tail wagged even harder upon seeing his human approach. His mouth dropped open to pant, making it look like he was smiling.

 “Kosmo!”

A tilt of a large head signaled Keith had Kosmo’s full attention.

“Off!” Keith snapped his fingers.

Unfortunately, Kosmo was not a regular domestic dog. He was a wolf, and a wolf from outer space at that. Therefore, he did not listen to orders like a dog normally would.

Bebe squealed in shock as Kosmo teleported right off him and landed squarely on Keith. This time, Lance didn’t laugh, and he and the other boy quickly shuffled over to Keith to help him up.

Hunk almost made a joke at Keith being a magnet for animals, but he stopped upon seeing the tears of real frustration in the other Paladin’s eyes. His jaw was clenched in anger, which Hunk knew was one of Keith’s telltale signs that things were about to go south.

“Uh, dude? Are you okay?” he asked, starting to get seriously concerned.

Keith stood up sharply, almost catching Hunk’s chin in the process. “You know what? No. I’m _not_ okay. I’m _not._ We’ve all ruined everything, and I can’t do this anymore!”

He stormed off, nearly tripping over Bebe, and Hunk heard him sniffling as he limped back down the hallway. Kosmo whined upon finally sensing his human’s distress and zapped away.

 _“Keith!”_ Lance darted after him.

Hunk paused, wondering if he should give Keith some privacy, before deciding that his friend probably needed him. Come to think of it, Keith hadn’t been acting right for awhile now.

He followed the pair to Keith’s room, and by then the poor guy was an absolute mess.

 _How many crying people am I going to have to deal with today?_ Hunk wondered. He was going to need another nap after this.

“I can’t do this anymore! I just can’t!” Keith sobbed. Lance had managed to sit him down on his bed and was rubbing circles into his back. “It’s _too much._ I hate it.”

“Okay, deep breaths, buddy. Let’s talk about this.” Lance’s brows were furrowed, the semi-light atmosphere from before now completely gone.

Keith paused to gulp in air. He was hyperventilating so bad he pitched forward and had to be pulled back by Lance. Hunk pulled up the chair from the desk so he could sit by them without crowding Keith, wondering how the hell whatever problem the Black Paladin had got to the point where he was _breaking down_ about it.

“I don’t even… I lost my bond with Black. They won’t open for me. We literally killed Lotor. He’s hurt. I’m supposed to be the leader. The universe has gone to shit,” Keith gasped, words coming out in ragged sentences.

“Keith, this isn’t just your fault. We all fucked up. And now, we’re going to fix it. Somehow,” Lance tried to explain.

Hunk felt his stomach drop right out of him. Oh, man, this was _bad._ “Hold up. Keith, the Black Lion kicked you out?”

Keith nodded jerkily.

“And you and Shiro have been trying to reestablish your bond. It… it didn’t go well, didn’t it?” Lance prompted gently. “How long has this been going on?”

“Since the komar. I keep trying, but nothing’s working! Black doesn’t want me anymore!” Keith’s fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

A thought wiggled around in Hunk’s mind, making him lean forward in his chair so he could look into Keith’s bloodshot eyes. “Keith. Do you _want_ to be the Black Paladin?”

His mouth gaped open and shut a few times. “I-I… I don’t… I tried to…”

Lance took his hands into his own so Keith would stop digging his nails into his own skin. “Hey. Why don’t we start from the beginning, okay? Tell me why you think the Black Lion chose you.”

“I… I dunno.”

“Well, I think it’s because they saw potential in you. You’ve been a really good leader, and I’m not just saying that ‘cause you’re my friend,” Lance insisted.

Keith looked up to meet Lance’s blue gaze, and just kind of flopped against him. Lance hugged him close and buried his face in the other boy’s shoulder. He rocked him gently, slowly but surely getting Keith to calm down.

“Shiro wanted you to succeed him,” Hunk stated. Several things clicked into place, making him swallow back even more guilt. How had he never realized this? “And you did. But… you never wanted it, did you? You never wanted to be the leader of Voltron.”

Lance looked stunned. _“What?”_

“No. I didn’t.” Keith let out a wobbling exhale, all the fight draining out of him like blood out of a wound. He started shivering. Lance shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around the other boy, and Keith grabbed on to it gratefully, pulling it tighter around himself.

“I thought I could do it. I really did. It was what Shiro wanted. I thought that if I could try hard enough, I would learn to like it, or at least… tolerate it. But it never got better,” Keith said, every word rapid-fire.

The hope began to slowly drain from Lance’s face, and Hunk knew he was wearing the same expression. “Keith… how bad was it?”

Keith’s shoulders hunched. “… Bad.”

“Keith, please,” Hunk begged.

“… I… I started throwing up a month in. It was the anxiety. Then I got chest pains a lot, and my throat started burning. I had panic attacks several times every… day? I don’t know. Time is weird in space,” he muttered.

“Oh, _God,_ Keith,” Lance groaned, scrubbing his face with his hands.

Hunk’s jaw started to ache from clenching his teeth so hard. A lump welled up in his throat, and he slumped back in his chair with his eyes squeezed shut. He took a long minute to compose himself, take a few deep breaths, and plan out what he was going to say next.

A tired huff escaped him, and he felt like he was a thousand years old. “Keith, we’re going to figure this out. You won’t have to keep destroying yourself like this-”

“Keith? What’s going on?”

He and Lance looked up to see Shiro standing in the doorway, metal hand on his hip and brows furrowed. The captain was clearly concerned as he looked down at Keith.

“I…” Keith tried, but it was obvious he didn’t have the energy to explain himself. He just shook his head and buried his face in Lance’s shoulder.

Hunk decided it was up to him to end this. Shiro looked at him expectantly as he stood and approached the older man.

“Keith can’t be the Black Paladin anymore.”

“Wh…” Shiro’s eyes widened in shock. _“What?”_

“He can’t do it anymore. It’s completely ruining him. Keith’s suffering from severe anxiety, and it’s impacting how he functions. His mental health has gone to shit and all of this,” Hunk waved his hand around from emphasis. “Needs to stop.”

“What?” Shiro turned to stare at Keith, metal hand slipping from his thigh to hang limply by his side. “Keith, no. We have to go back to the Black Lion and try again. You can’t just give up!”

 _“Give up?!”_ Lance exploded to his feet. “How _dare you!_ You call throwing up from anxiety, panic attacks, sickness, chest pains, _giving up?_ I thought _you_ of all people would understand!”

The worry fell from Shiro’s face and was quickly replaced by anger. “This is between me and Keith, Lance. You need to leave so we can talk. You too, Hunk.”

Hunk blinked at him, stunned, but Lance was having none of it.

“You will not speak to me like that.” Lance raised his chin, blue eyes turning to glinting ice. “I am the second-in-command of this team. Since Keith is no longer able to pilot Black, that leaves me in charge. Until we find a new Black Paladin, Voltron will just have to wait.”

“The universe _needs_ Voltron!” Shiro snapped.

“We don’t have a choice. The Black Lion severed their bond with Keith. No amount of pushing him beyond his limits is going to change that, and if you can’t accept that then that’s your problem. If you want to make yourself useful go get some anxiety suppressants from the med bay,” Lance told him coldly.

Shiro took a step back, seemingly realizing Lance wasn’t going to budge. Hunk crossed his arms and glared at the captain. There was a long, suffocating silence between the four of them (well, three, since Keith was just sitting on the bed staring into empty space) before Shiro turned to get out of the room.

And almost ran right into Krolia.

Hunk almost shit himself despite knowing he wasn’t the target of the woman’s anger. Beside him, Lance shrank back against the wall, all previous courage gone. Keith squeaked in surprise.

The Galran’s yellow eyes were slit with rage as she considered Shiro, a long, low growl rumbling deep in her chest. Pointed ears flattened tight against her head. Hunk was immediately reminded of a pissed off cat.

Shiro paled, immediately turned, and speed-walked away.

Krolia snarled loud enough for the sound to echo off the walls, and Hunk startled so bad he almost fell over. Keith flattened himself against the bed.

It was Lance who recovered first after a couple seconds.

“That was awesome!” He pushed off the wall and ran over to Krolia. “Can you teach me how to do the evil glare like you do?”

The hostility faded from Krolia’s expression as she looked down at Lance, quickly replaced by an amused fondness. “I can do that. May I come in?”

“Yeah.”

Krolia slipped in behind Lance and sat down on the bed next to Keith. Hunk smiled as Keith tentatively reached for his mother’s hand, to which Krolia gladly accepted.

With an exhausted groan, Hunk sat back down in his chair and closed his eyes. Holy crap, the amount of drama in his life was going to _kill_ him. On top of all the bullshit that had occurred since Lotor was pulled from the komar, Team Voltron was now more or less down an honorary member and a Black Paladin. Honerva was with the Alteans on their colonies, doing who knows what. The universe was in complete disarray.

Despite his brain going wild with all of those thoughts in his head, he managed to fall into a light doze along with Keith, Krolia, and Lance.

It couldn’t have been more than an hour before he woke up again. The other boys and Krolia were still asleep on Keith’s bed, with Lance and Krolia sandwiching the exhausted Paladin between them.

Hunk smiled at that and crept quietly out of the room before shutting the door behind him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit y'all, thanks so much for waiting this long. I got a new job, my cat had a medical emergency, school is being a bitch, and quite frankly I am fucking exhausted. Hopefully updates can be regular again in the near future. 
> 
> Anyhoo, enjoy one more filler chapter before the story begins to pick up again. With the position of Black Paladin open, things are about to Get Interesting.


	14. Launch Date, Part Four

Keith fell asleep to deep rumble of his mother’s purring by his ear and the pressure of Lance’s chest warming his back, and just for a moment, his fear and guilt washed away. The harsh sting of Shiro’s angry words was still there, but at least the urge to barf everywhere left his guts. That was a relief, at least.

His dreams were dark and meaningless. There was a crying toddler holding a knife in his bloody fist- himself? When he tried to run over to the kid it vanished, leaving nothing but shadows and the faint smell of smoke. He turned around, trying to figure out where the smoke was coming from, and found himself in a burning house with a firefighter desperately shielding a screaming teenage girl from the inferno burning around them.

 _Bad call, Dad,_ he told the firefighter. _Both of you died that morning, anyways._

The house and fire fell away. Keith still smelled smoke. The inside of his subconscious didn’t offer anything else for an indeterminate amount of time, so he just drifted endlessly between the waking world and the sleeping, alone with his muddled thoughts.

He woke up because he suddenly felt like he was falling, which resulted in him lurching upright with a snort and flailing around for his dagger.

A groan made him look down, only to see Lance making a face at him, still mostly buried in the blankets. “Dude.”

Keith noticed a red mark on his cheek and realized he must have slapped the guy in his frantic scramble back to consciousness. “Oh, shit. Sorry.”

“Mmph, you’re good.” Lance wormed around to lay on his back and stare at the ceiling. Keith tried to not think too much about Lance’s croaky just-woke-up voice and settled for retreating back to the comfort of the space by his side. Their shoulders pressed together under the sheets, so Keith focused on that as he closed his eyes again. “Your Mama wanted me to tell you she had to go attend a meeting with some Garrison higher-ups. Apparently Lotor’s… recovered well enough to ask for a proper sit-down with the bigwigs.”

He felt more awake after Lance said that. “Seriously? Good. I… I’m glad he’s doing better.”

“… Me too.”

They rested together for a few more minutes, not yet ready to go out and face the rest of the world. Keith rested his head on Lance’s shoulder, tentatively at first, but then he felt Lance slide his hand down his arm and lace their fingers together.

“We’re going to figure this out, Mullet. Together.” Lance turned to gently knock his forehead against his own, and Keith couldn’t help but finally smile, his heart feeling like it was close to bursting with too many emotions to even name.

They pulled on their Garrison uniform jackets and did their best to fix their sleep-mussed hair before slipping out. The corridors were weirdly empty, as if it was a normal school day and everybody was at class.

 _The meeting with Lotor and the commanders,_ Keith remembered. “We better find somebody who knows when that friendly get-together starts.”

Lance snorted. “This is gonna be fun.”

“Like getting space-sick.”

“Nah, more like fighting Zarkon with half your ribs broken.”

“No, it’s like-”

“Keith!”

He turned in surprise to see Adam jogging over to them, new prosthetic arm glinting like starshine in the florescent lighting. “What the hell, kid! I go in for surgery to get this bad boy attached and I miss World War Five, a reboot of _Star Trek,_ and the second coming of Christ. Don’t worry, though, I already yelled at Takashi.”

Keith blinked. “You… you did?”

“Uh, yeah? I can’t _believe_ that he…” Adam took a deep breath, looking like he was working to stay calm. “Anyways. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pissed that you and your friends sort of killed that poor alien bastard and tossed the entire universe into disarray, but for now we gotta go do politics. C’mon, I’ll take you two to the meeting.”

At Adam’s mention of Lotor he felt like he had gotten punched in the gut, but he sucked it up and nodded. Lance knocked against his shoulder as he caught up to him and Adam, and together they headed off to face whatever the former emperor had in store for them.

<> 

The tension in the debriefing room was thick enough to get Keith’s heart racing the second he stepped into it.

To the front right of the room sat the rest of the Paladins, Coran, and Romelle, who was staring down at her clenched fists. Next to her were the MFE pilots and a few more higher-ranking officials Keith had already forgotten the names for. Veronica fiddled with a pen next to a very tense James Griffin, who was engaged in some kind of silent argument with Ryan Kinkade. His mother blinked warmly at him from the end of the table, and he smiled a little.

Across them was Colleen Holt, who seemed to be trying to catch Pidge’s eye. Commander Iverson, some lady Keith didn’t know, a couple other people, one doctor in a white coat.

And then, Lotor.

Despite being the only seven-foot-something lavender-skinned alien in a room full of twitchy humans, Lotor portrayed nothing but a vision of calm and regality. He wore a large pilot’s uniform with a jacket, white hair tied back from his face. A cane was clasped neatly across his lap. While it was clear he was still in the early stages of recovery, the Galran held himself in a way that made his royal upbringing none too subtle.

“Emperor Lotor,” Commander Iverson rasped after the near-nonexistent talking in the room ceased. Everybody leaned in nervously, including Keith, who made sure he wasn’t at risk for accidentally making eye contact with the other half-Galra. “You have our gratitude for arranging such a prompt debriefing, especially with your health still on the mend. We’re all ears for everything you have to tell us.”

“Thank you, Commander. It is of the utmost importance that we bring to light Haggar’s threat, and what it means for the rest of the universe.” Lotor’s deep, smooth voice was a sharp contrast to the rest of his bony frame, but he nodded proudly to Iverson before continuing. “The first thing I need to stress is that this witch is a threat like your people have never faced before. The invasion of your planet by Sendak and his forces, the komar, your numerous world wars… none of them could ever hope to hold a candle to Haggar. I intend no offense, Commander, numerous officials of the Galaxy Garrison, but your technology is simply not ready yet for defeating such a deadly adversary.”

“Could you explain in detail the abilities of this… Haggar?” Colleen asked.

“I can. Haggar possesses a highly trained army of Alteans that were formerly under my command, and with them many hundreds of komars. I have no doubt she also is in control of at least a quarter of the former Galran Empire. On top of her many resources lies her control over quintessence, the lifeblood of reality itself. She is trained in Altean alchemy and can manipulate the mind of anything with a beating heart. This woman is a scientist unlike any other and has ten thousand years of experience in the art of war. On that note, she knows Voltron and all their allies will be coming for her within the next decapheob or so. She _will_ be ready,” Lotor stated.

There was a muted but loud shuffling as everybody in the room besides the Galran leader tensed up. Griffin looked even paler than usual, and Veronica’s blue eyes glazed over as she no doubt tried to wrap her head around everything Lotor had just said.

Keith felt hot and cold at the same time. This… this _Haggar_ wasn’t the same witch they had fought when it had just been them against the Empire. She was no longer Zarkon’s right hand or some distant nightmare they could worry about some other time. Now, she was _Honerva,_ whether Lotor wanted to admit it or not, and Honerva was a thousand times more dangerous than Haggar ever could have been.

“What motives drive her to do what she does?” a general demanded.

“The answer to that is simple and yet infinitely more complicated than anybody besides her could understand,” Lotor explained. “Haggar is tired of war. She is tired of suffering, of losing, of endless threats to her and her regime. What she wants is to bring the entirety of this universe under her control. In her perfect Empire, there will be no more need for any of that. She quite possibly has the power she needs to do this, and in her eyes, the right motives.”

“… I don’t suppose she’d agree to meet us and come to an agreement about not going through with her… ambitions,” Iverson said humorlessly.

Lotor shook his head. “Oh, she would gladly come here. She would fill your head with visions of a perfect reality, basing them off your own desires in an attempt to make you see things her way. Then, if by some miracle you resist her powers and defy her, she would simply strike you down where you stand and wipe out Earth once and for all.”

“Riding on that, what would this ‘perfect Empire’ outcome mean for the people of Earth? Would Voltron be able to keep us safe?” another officer asked.

 _“Just_ Earth?” Keith snapped, anger boiling in his stomach. The Galaxy Garrison pissed him off on a good day, but this was ridiculous. “We need to look at the big picture here, and that’s the fact _some_ people need to learn that we aren’t the most important civilization in the universe! Haggar, under _no_ circumstances cannot be allowed to go through with her plans, or reality as we know it is done for!”

 _“Keith,”_ Shiro said sharply, but Lotor raised a hand for him to be silent.

“Paladin Keith makes a very good point, one that I beg you all consider. While it is perfectly natural for a leader to consider their planet above all the others I’m afraid selfishness is something we can no longer afford. Defeating Haggar must come at _any_ cost,” Lotor declared, blue irises flashing dangerously.

“Even if we have to doom our own planet?” Iverson hissed.

“Even if we have to doom a hundred planets. There are many quintillions of civilizations out there, with even more peoples with their own families and homes and lives. If you think for one tick that we shouldn’t be ready to give our all to save them I suggest you rethink your status as protectors of your planet Earth!”

“Many other planets will be doing the same in the name of freedom.” Keith turned to see Allura stand from her chair, glaring down at the Garrison officials with icy blue-violet eyes. “I will not let them do this without Voltron. I will not demand aid of you; it is like Lotor said: human technology, even with Altean advancements, will not be enough to protect you in a fight against Haggar. But we must go now.”

“You’re going to leave us here undefended?” It was then Iverson visibly lost his temper. He stood as well to meet Allura’s glare, his remaining eye twitching in rage. “You might be a princess, but you can’t order the other Paladins to do what you want. They’re citizens of Earth, and therefore they need to stay here to defend it!”

Lance raised a brow and made a farting sound with his lips. “We did the war against Sendak’s forces our way, and we’ll save the universe our way, too. With all due respect, Commander, you can kiss my ass.”

He made eye contact with Keith, and Keith felt his heart skip a beat as they simultaneously rose from their seats, followed by the other Paladins. He received a jolt of surprise as the MFE pilots shrugged and got up as well, along with his mom, Romelle, Veronica, Adam, Colleen and Samuel Holt, and a few other uneasy-looking officers. Shiro let Lotor lean on him and Veronica as he left the table, jaw clenching with the effort of standing up.

“I order you all to stop!” another general shouted. The commotion rose as people began arguing, some trying to defend the Paladins, others calling for their arrest. Iverson began cussing out a wary-looking Curtis, who raised his hands in mock surrender.

Keith then noticed Colleen grab Pidge, who instinctively tried to pull away, but when her mom whispered something in her ear she stopped and froze. The Green Paladin sprinted off, her dad close behind.

In the end, he never did figure out who fired the first shot. All he knew was that Lance had doubled over in pain, a bright blossom of red spreading across his shoulder before slumping against Hunk.

Keith _roared_ in fury, whipping around to clock his bayard across the first Garrison officer he saw. She went down like a sack of bricks, revealing another pissed off captain barreling his way with a pistol drawn. He jumped, kicked off the wall, and struck the man hard with the flat of his blade. The man stumbled back, just in time for Keith to land in front of him and slice the weapon from his hand, taking a few fingers with it.

His mom charged past him to grapple with one of the bigger guys, knocking him back on his ass in a second flat. Hunk’s bayard flashed, and Keith momentarily stopped in amazement as it unlocked to reveal some kind of heavy-duty battle axe.

The Yellow Paladin gave a deafening battle cry as he thrust Lance behind him to shield the injured boy. Winding up, he swung the enormous blade and cut down five officers at once, sending them flying. One went right into another guy and put them both down for the count, and other hit the ceiling so hard Keith almost winced in sympathy.

Unfortunately, while he had been distracted by Hunk’ awesomeness, he didn’t give the rest of the fight enough attention as he should have. A bullet whizzed by his ear with a brain-numbing shriek and buried itself into the adjacent wall. Keith turned to see Iverson storming towards him, blood streaming from a cut by his temple. A gun was clutched firmly in his right hand.

“It’s about damn time I got you to pay for this!” he snarled, jabbing a gnarled finger at his bad eye. He raised his gun at Keith, who darted out of the way as he fired.

“You left me to rot in the desert! I wasn’t even legal!” Keith shouted back, infuriated. His pulse pounded in his ears and heated his entire being. “You should be grateful it was just your eye!”

Iverson swung a heavy fist, which he ducked under and traded a blow of his own. It clipped the man’s face, making him say something that had Keith’s face turn red, which was _really_ saying something. “Delinquents like you don’t _have_ a place in society. I should have made you disappear before I even got Shiro out of the way!”

The air was sucked out of Keith’s lungs by a nonexistent vacuum, and he staggered back. _No._

Iverson raised his pistol level with Keith’s eyes and smirked. “Say goodbye, you little shit.”

_Whump._

Iverson went clean through the wall, hurled at an impressive speed by one robotic arm. Keith could see his unmoving form in the next room over, covered in dust and rubble.

Towering above the hole in the plaster was a stone-faced Shiro, dark eyes burning like hellfire within a black hole. His fists squeezed, as if he was considering leaping in after the commander and beating him within an inch of his life, but ended up just stepping away from the mess.

They didn’t have time to do anything other than exchange a quick glance before it was back into the fray.

“Get to the Atlas,” Adam ordered as he ran by him, dragging a squealing Curtis by the collar. He was tossed a flashdrive, which he then understood wasn’t actually a flashdrive. It was an emergency key that could start up the Atlas without authorization from the Garrison. Pidge’s dad had shown him one when they were trying to get the giant ship into the air, not that he thought it was important at the time.

Keith took off, shoving between scuffling officers and Paladins before finally breaking free of the fight. He broke into a dead sprint, letting muscle memory take over as he turned down three more hallways, hurried down a flight of stairs, pushed past a trio of startled cadets.

_Come on, come on-!_

He all but smashed through the doors that led into the hangar.

And was greeted with the sight of an even bigger brawl.

Keith yelped as a crowbar sailed by his head. It lodged into the wall behind him, which was more than enough to get him moving again. Not bothering to engage with any hostile officers, he made a beeline straight for the Atlas. He tried to not think about how some of the bodies he had to jump over had been people who had given their lives so he and the others could escape.

Nearly at the base of the battleship, Keith prepared himself to jump up on the anchor before him when a high-pitched screech made him freeze.

Romelle was cornered between two storage crates with a quartet of Garrison officers training their rifles at her. She was holding her left side with a bloody arm, and Keith knew she had been shot. Alteans were seriously tough, but he knew this wasn’t a fight she was going to win.

_Oh, shit._

Before he could make the decision to either go help her or start up the Atlas, a lean form darted out from the shadows and cracked one guy upside the head with a cane. The soldier next to him received a boot to the face and flew a good twenty feet away.

Keith could do nothing but stare as Lotor put himself between Romelle and the two remaining officers. The Galran’s fangs were bared in anger, back slightly arched to make himself look as threatening as possible. With a blur of claws, Lotor lashed out and struck the female soldier across the face, and judging by the resulting scream Keith knew she had been blinded at least temporarily. At the same time, he kicked out and sent the rifle of the other guy spinning away before striking him down with a punch.

Lotor barked something to Romelle, whose eyes got even bigger, if that was even possible, and looked right at Keith.

Shaking himself out of his daze, he leapt for the hatch that the anchor would retract into and scrambled inside. Silently cursing the growth spurt he had not too long ago and fumbling around in the tight space, he located the panel and pushed it out. He hauled himself out of there as fast as he could, scraping several parts of his body in the process, and hauled ass to the main deck.

The second he slammed the key into the hidden ignition at the captain’s station he found the security cameras. Locating the feed that showed the area around the belly of the ship, he spotted Lotor and Romelle crouched down between the anchor’s claws, shielding a pair of not-hostile officers between them.

He lifted his wrist mic to his mouth. “Paladins, this is Keith! What’s your status?”

 _“Almost there!”_ Hunk cried, sounding out of breath. _“Lance isn’t doing good, he passed out. I think the laser hit his heart!”_

Keith almost collapsed in terror.

Begging whatever cosmic force that would listen to him to keep Lance alive, he forced himself to breathe before responding to Hunk. “Just keep moving, no matter what! I’m opening the main hatch in thirty seconds.”

_“Got it!”_

_Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…_

The civil war raged on outside, the officers on their side doing everything to push the rest back from the Atlas. His heart jumped into his throat when he saw Shiro and Adam tearing a path through the chaos, leading the others behind them.

_Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…_

Adam was attacked by a furious general and the two went down together. Behind them and the rest of the team, Hunk carried a bloody Lance, with the Yellow Paladin not looking much better than his unconscious teammate. His left arm looked broken or at least dislocated.

He forced himself to look away before he started hyperventilating.

_Twelve, eleven, ten…_

Keith’s hand hovered over the lever.

_Nine, eight, seven, six…_

Shiro made it to the belly of the Atlas and shouted for the others. Lotor said something to Romelle and ran out from his hiding spot. A pair of particularly daring soldiers dared to approach him without weapons and were promptly scared away by a pissed off Galra charging them down. Krolia did the same thing to a cadet that had somehow made it past the defense by the front of the ship.

_Three._

_Two._

_… One._

Keith pulled the lever down.

The main hatch slowly but surely began to lower to the floor. With a running start, his mom crouched and leapt up to meet it, twisting mid-air like a hunting cat before grabbing the edge. She pulled herself in, and soon after Keith got the notification that the chamber door was unlocked and opened. _Good job, Mom!_

When the door was just a few feet from the concrete Allura jumped up and began helping people inside. Shiro would be at the deck soon to get the Atlas in the air; hopefully already amongst the steady streams of people flowing in across the security feeds.

With more and more of the officers who were on their side retreating to the Atlas, the more they became overwhelmed by their former coworkers. Horrified, Keith watched as an older man shot a cadet through the chest, leaving the kid to crumple to the ground. He almost charged out of there to go help, to do something, before remembering that he was needed here so that the universe could be saved.

 _I’m so sorry,_ he thought, or maybe he said it aloud. He wasn’t really sure.

The doors slid open to reveal a beaten up but alive Shiro, followed by Adam and a group of officers Keith assumed was going to be their crew.

“Go help the others!” Shiro ordered as he jogged up to the captain’s station.

Keith didn’t need to be told twice and bolted right by the former Paladin on his way out.

After several minutes of dodging his way through the absolute mess that was the Atlas at that moment, he skidded into the medical bay and looked around wildly. “Lance! _Lance!”_

A weak shout made him whip around to see Hunk raise his good arm.

Lance had been laid out in the cot beside him, a doctor already pressing some kind of scanner to the mess of blood on his chest. Now that Keith had a better look at it, he was able to fully appreciate the horror that was the gaping wound that looked to be right over Lance’s heart. He stumbled over to the other boy, unable to take in air, before coming to a halt beside him.

“Is he…” was all he managed.

The doctor just grunted at him. “Well, if all of space hasn’t managed to kill you crazy kids by now, I doubt one little laser blast to the chest won’t, either. My handy-dandy instrument here tells me it missed his heart by two millimeters. He’ll be fine.”

Hunk let his head fall back against his pillow. “Oh, thank _God.”_

“No, thank _me._ Now go get me more bandages, scruffy boy!”

Keith ran over to the nearby shelf to grab the gauze, not daring to take a second to breathe in case he fainted from relief.

_Lance is going to be okay. He just has to pull through this, and then he’ll be okay._

As he helped the doctor pull Lance’s shirt off to get to the injury, he felt the ship lurch ever so slightly around them. The dull, deep hum of the engine flared, popping his eardrums and making medical instruments rattle on their trays. The Atlas was lifting off. They had done it.

They were going back to the stars, and maybe, just _maybe,_ they could save them from the darkness that lurked just beyond.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith: My name's Keith and this is jackass *throws his bayard at Iverson*


	15. Shadows

Pidge was shook.

One minute she was lurking around Hunk’s apartment, trying to avoid her own family and mentally preparing for the meeting between Lotor and the Garrison. The next she was either beating the shit out of grown adults or getting the shit beaten out of _her._

She had to give it up to her mom, though. Instead of trying to get her to go back to the apartment and hide, Captain Colleen Holt grabbed her by the arm and told her to go get her dad’s laptop from their bedroom, the one with all his designs. They would need it to create more weapons to fight Honerva with, as well as the fact that leaving the Galaxy Garrison with blueprints like that was a bad, _bad_ idea. Then, she fought her way to the Atlas, helped drag Lotor’s huge ass up the ramp, and booked it to the Green Lion. If the Garrison tried to follow them, they would get a _nasty_ surprise.

In short, the team and several Coalition extras (plus some of the officers with more than one brain cell) managed to escape. With her and Hunk flanking the Atlas, they tore out of the Solar System as fast as the battleship could go.

She didn’t look back.

 _“I can’t believe that just happened,”_ Hunk said after they passed Pluto’s orbit. The Kuiper Belt would be a little annoying for the Atlas to get through without hitting any asteroids, but she had faith in Shiro’s piloting abilities.

“I can. The Garrison was always shady as hell. Like, the _Blade of Marmora_ is less shady than them. How shady do you have to be to make the Blade look nice?” Pidge snorted.

_“Well, I mean, the whole backlash about us leaving… okay, whatever. But shooting Lance? Killing other people? What the hell!”_

“I know.”

Hunk sighed. _“I never even got to say goodbye to my family. Neither did Lance.”_

Pidge felt like she’d been sucker punched. “Oh, God, Hunk. I didn’t even think about that. I’m so sorry. Crap, what are we going to tell him?”

 _“He’ll understand. He won’t be happy, but he’ll understand.”_ He was silent for a minute or two, and Pidge got the feeling he was deep in thought. _“I mean, at least now we have some idea of what we’re doing? We’ve got a kickass battleship, we have actual food, we have lots of supplies and people to lean on. All of our families know we’re alive, even if we didn’t get to talk to them before leaving. Compared to how we began this whole shindig, I’d say we’ve got it pretty good right now.”_

“How are you so optimistic?” Pidge laughed, shaking her head. Man, Hunk never ceased to amaze her.

_“It’s that Yellow Paladin charm, my dude.”_

“You’re terrible.”

_“Says the chick who released a bunch of those Jul’Anxkilon spider-things in my room because I ate the last cookie on the Castle of Lions!”_

“Hey, you know double-chocolate chip is my favorite!”

They both broke off laughing, Pidge smug as she remembered sneaking a box of those purple-marked arachnoids back to the Castle. Allura had fallen for the whole “It was a really cool computer from the people we saved!” act she gave, with some puppy-eyes to top it off. She brought it to her room and went about her evening as usual, or whatever the Paladins considered to be “the evening” at the time. Nobody suspected a thing. Then, when everybody went to bed, she climbed up into the vents, bringing the box o’ spiders with her, and dumped the whole thing into Hunk’s room while screaming at the top of her lungs.

The next half-hour had been pretty interesting.

 _“So, um,”_ Hunk began after their snickering session ended. _“Did you ever talk things over with your mom? The other night, uh. Kind of had me worried.”_

Her mood tanked like a submarine. “Ugghh! My dad and brother have been _so cool_ ever since I got back, especially since we all fought together in space. They treat me like an adult. I treat them like adults. It’s all good, right? _Wrong._ My mother grounded me the second she calmed down when we first got to the base.”

 _“… Well, I mean, she’s your mom? And you kinda disappeared for like, four years? It makes sense for her to want to keep a close eye on you,”_ Hunk offered hesitantly.

Pidge groaned. “I know what you’re saying, and to that I offer up the fact that my mom is a busy lady and still works a lot. It’s not like she has the opportunity to hover over me, thank the Universe. She just… doesn’t want to accept I grew up without her.”

_“We were protective of you, too. You’re still the baby of the team.”_

“Pfft, I am the baby, aren’t I? But you guys knew I was still a Paladin. A _warrior.”_ She straightened up in her seat, proud.

 _“Your mom’s gonna come through,”_ Hunk promised her. _“We’ve got a lot of time to burn before we hit Empire territory. Or what’s left of it, anyways. Plenty of opportunities to familiarize ourselves with the areas of space we’re going to, and train, and relax, and-”_

_“Hunk! Pidge! You guys can return to the Atlas now, we’ll be out of the Kuiper Belt in an hour. We need to talk about something.”_

_“We’ll be right there, Shiro,”_ Hunk told him. When the comm link cut off, the two Paladins groaned in perfect unison.

“You jinxed it,” Pidge complained.

<> 

With the medical ward still overflowing with injured people, the rest of the ship was pretty quiet. Pidge trotted alongside Hunk up to the command room, beginning to get an idea of what Shiro wanted to discuss with them as a team.

_This is gonna suck._

Hunk had told her everything that had happened with Keith- him having a breakdown in every sense of the word, Shiro demanding that he keep trying with the Black Lion, the former Red Paladin’s confession that he never even _wanted_ to be the leader of Voltron. It made him literally sick from the stress.

She was also interested in the whole “Keith and Lance spooned” part, but Hunk said it didn’t count for anything because Keith was so screwed up. Also, Krolia was there.

Party pooper.

Hunk hit the switch to open the door, and it slid open for them. Pidge followed him in, taking in the sight of the huge cockpit and feeling her breath being taken away. The Atlas never failed to amaze her with its incredible technology, elegant design, and likeliness to the Castle of Lions. It felt kind of like her old home, too. She supposed it was because of the crystal powering it- the compressed version of the Altean relic.

In a way, the Castle would always be there with them.

Shiro turned around at the sound of the door, and his face lit up when he saw them. “Hey! Good timing, you two. Curtis, keep us heading for the Andromeda Galaxy, I’ll be back in a while.”

Curtis gave Shiro a thumbs-up and shoved a bunch of Doritos into his mouth.

Shiro led the way back out, and three of them let him lead them to a small conference room. There weren’t any chairs, just a table anchored to the floor so it wouldn’t fly around during tricky aerial maneuvers.

He exhaled slowly, staring out of the window to the stars beyond. “Hunk, I know I was too hard on Keith yesterday. I’m really sorry you and Lance had to see that, and I know I need to apologize to Keith, too.”

“Okay, cool. Thanks,” Hunk said.

“I should have been more considerate of his own struggles. Being a leader is… hard, even on the easiest days,” Shiro admitted. “And I’ve had a lot of practice.”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Pidge agreed.

“So, I was hoping that you two could show a little more support to him in the coming days. The Black Lion is being… difficult, so I don’t know how all of this is going to work out. All we can hope for is that they’ll come to some sort of decision.” Shiro tapped a finger against the fake wood of the table, looking distant.

“Okay, but Keith’s not going to be the Black Paladin again,” Hunk told him. “I don’t care that he’s your golden child or whatever and all you want is the best for him, blah blah blah. It’s not happening.”

Shiro stared down at him, grimacing. “Hunk, we can’t just find another Black Paladin like we’re going out to grocery shop.”

“That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Pidge chimed. “We’ll pick out some people that might be a good fit and present them to Black. Rinse and repeat until Black adopts their new baby.”

“I’ll start a list!” Hunk yelled, leaping for the door.

“Operation: New Black Paladin will commence! Bye, Shiro, go take a nap!” Pidge cheered, running after him. She had things to do, new Paladins to secure, officers to prank.

_Sucks to suck, Shiro._

 Filled with a triumphant glee she turned the corner, deciding to go find her dad to see if he had any advice for her, if he even had time to talk.

And almost smacked right into Lotor.

The fight at the Garrison had really taken it out of him. He leaned heavily on his cane, with a nurse close by his side in case his strength gave out. There was a cut on his cheek and a small bruise on his jaw, but other than that he just looked worn out.

When they locked eyes, Pidge’s stomach did a flip and fell out of her ass.

“Oh, uh… hi,” she managed. Her voice sounded like she just smoked a whole pack of cigarettes. Shit, shit, _shit,_ this was bad.

“Why, hello, Pidge,” he greeted. As far as she could tell, he didn’t _look_ mad. Just thoughtful.

Great, he was probably plotting how to yeet her out an airlock without anybody knowing. And she would let him. It’s what she deserved.

 _Oh, God, what do I say? Fuck!_ “… I, uh, hello. I’m glad you’re walking around now. How’s the, um… everything?”

Wow, maybe she should just save Lotor the trouble and go yeet out the airlock herself.

“A bit sore, but much better now. I never got to thank you for your assistance in helping me up that blasted ramp,” Lotor said, faint amusement crossing his features. “That little round of fisticuffs back there was quite impressive.”

“Oh, yeah. Usually humans aren’t so… short-tempered. You caught us on a bad day,” Pidge joked feebly.

“I see. Kayla, I think I can manage the way back by myself,” Lotor addressed the nurse behind him, who didn’t look much older than Keith.

“Okay, but if you keel over and die you have to tell my supervisors it wasn’t my fault,” Kayla deadpanned, shrugging. She looked at Pidge like, _Well, see ya._

Lotor rolled his eyes. “If you insist.”

“I do, actually,” she called over her shoulder as she ambled off down the hallway.

Pidge watched her go with a growing sense of finality.

So, this is how it ended for her. At least she was pretty sure Lotor would make it painless. He’d give her that, right?

Right?

 “Pidge, if I could have a moment of your time?”

She definitely wasn’t expecting the gentle tone in his voice when he asked that. Or that he even asked to speak with her alone. Her confusion grew when she did a quick once-over of the former emperor and saw that he didn’t look aggressive in the slightest.

Pidge took a short breath. “Oh, uh… o… kay?”

Lotor dipped his head, and together, they began walking down the hall together.

Progress was slow going, with Lotor’s gait more of an unsteady shuffle than anything else. Every pained step sent little knives of shame up Pidge’s chest, and she forced herself to keep looking ahead instead of stealing glances at her injured companion.

It was him that spoke first. “How fares Lance?”

Pidge blinked. “He’s… he’s going to make it. Keith said that the doctors told him that he’d wake up within the next two days.”

“Good.” He seemed genuinely pleased by that.

Swallowing, she looked up at him, wondering how he could feel relieved that one of the people that tried to kill him (and succeeded) wouldn’t be dying. What exactly was this guy getting at?

“Although, I should have more faith in these human medics of yours. I’ve never seen a race so determined to protect and heal their injured fellows, even if they are complete strangers. Or even peoples of other species,” Lotor mused. “I saw at least seven doctors work themselves to the point of almost passing out before a coworker forced them to stop. Tell me, what is the motivation behind such efforts?”

“Well, humans can and will pack bond with pretty much anyone and anything. I guess that’s how we made so many friends up in space.” Pidge dared to look up at him again.  

“Perhaps it’s also why Fate chose you to be the Paladins of Voltron,” he murmured.

Shock rolled over her like a wave. “W-What? How can you be _saying_ that? Aren’t you mad about what we _did_ to you?!” she choked.

Lotor’s eyes widened, and he turned to look at her fully. “Child, do you truly believe the blame for all of this rests on your shoulders?”

“The blame for-uhhh, yeah! Because we did it!”

Pidge couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Lotor not going to at least verbally abuse her within an inch of her life for leaving him in the quintessence rift to _die?_

He stared down at her for what felt like an eternity. She was acutely aware of her breathing coming more and more shallow as her emotions threatened to overwhelm her. Ninety-nine percent of the time, Pidge prided herself on being a logical, level-headed person.

Now was not one of those times.

“… Walk with me,” he finally said, and limped forward.

Not knowing what the hell was going on, Pidge followed him.

They made their way through several more corridors before the Galran found what he was looking for. Without a word, Lotor ducked into one of the empty break rooms. When Pidge slipped in after him, he turned to look at her with such an expression of sadness on his face she almost broke down right there and then.

“Pidge, I fear I didn’t make my feelings as obvious as I thought they were. Everything that happened, the fight, getting trapped in the rift, my Empire falling apart… I don’t blame you for any of that. And what Shiro did, obviously, upon learning he had been a clone at the time. Nor do I find fault with Keith, or Hunk, or Lance.”

“You… don’t?” Her voice was impossibly small.

He shook his head. “No, I most certainly do not. My mind had been taken by the quintessence and warped into something truly terrible. You are children, and you were _frightened._ None of you had received any kind of training before becoming Paladins, before fighting an inter-galactic _war_ that had been going on for tens of thousands of years. How should anyone else think you would react?”

“But it’s still no excuse! We should have never taken Romelle’s word like that and, and-!”

“You are right. It is no excuse.” With an exhausted sigh, Lotor kneeled down to look her in the eye. In his gaze, Pidge saw nothing but worry and sadness. “But still, you must understand that I, in no way, despise you or the boys for _anything_ that happened that night.”

In that moment, Pidge changed her mind. It would have been better if Lotor had just told her he was revolted by her and the other Paladins. It would have been better if he _hated_ them.

This… she couldn’t handle _this._

There, in front of the former Emperor of the Galran Empire, she broke down in tears.

Pidge flung herself into his arms and sobbed on his shoulder. She felt him tense in surprise before relaxing immediately after, hugging her closer in a way that made it painfully clear that he wasn’t familiar with non-violent contact.

That made her heart hurt even more.

It was several minutes before she was able to calm down, and Lotor held her as she did. The slow, steady beat of his heart in her ear synced with her breaths, an extra _boom_ with every pulse Pidge heard.

 _Galra hearts must have five chambers, not four,_ a little voice in the back of her mind noted.

“I’m sorry,” she rasped.

A rush of air over the top of her head gave away Lotor’s soft huff. “Don’t be. There is nothing to be sorry for.”

“But…”

He rose to his feet before she could finish, shaking his head. “Come, you’re exhausted. Your mother will have my bones as decorations if she finds out I’ve kept you from your bed.”

“… Did you two meet?” she asked, curious. Making sure nobody was around to see her red face (she hated it when people knew she had been crying), Pidge trudged out to the corridor, a massive yawn escaping her lungs.

Lotor smiled. “We did, actually. She seems to have gotten it in her head that I am the sole reason she has her husband back.”

“You kind of are,” Pidge realized. “Holy shit. Lotor, if it wasn’t for you pretending to give yourself up to Zarkon… I wouldn’t have my family again.”

“I’m afraid you don’t give yourself enough credit, Paladin Pidge. You and that brother of yours were quite the hellraisers. My soldiers often spoke of your fearsome antics when they thought I couldn’t hear them.”

That finally got her to laugh, and Lotor joined in with his own deep chuckle, which quickly morphed into a rattling cough that had him bending over at the waist.

A cold jolt of fear cut Pidge’s rising mood short. Pushing herself against his side so he could lean on her, she urged him back towards the medical ward. “Come on, you’ve pushed yourself too hard. Crap, crap, crap!”

“I’ll be fine,” he groaned. The loss of color from his lavender skin said otherwise. His previously sharp eyes became unfocused and dull.

Slowly, painfully, she all but hauled him down the now too-long hallways. The dude was tough as hell, she knew, so the fact he was acting like this was _definitely_ not a good sign. Shoving her guilt away to deal with later, Pidge focused on keeping Lotor steady until they got through the doors to the makeshift hospital.

Three doctors were on them the second they were inside.

“I told you!” Kayla called from the nurse’s station.

Lotor wheezed at her and made some gesture with his fist that Pidge guessed was the Galran equivalent of the middle finger.

Before he got taken away to one of the back rooms, he looked back at her and managed one last smile. There was a little bit of life back in his eyes despite his state, and because of that Pidge dared to hope everything would be okay.

 _Bedtime,_ she told herself as she groggily stumbled in the general direction of her room. Fatigue made her head fuzzy, but even then, her Paladin training kept her brain on alert. Thanks to said training, Pidge managed to catch a glimpse of blonde hair flying around the corner behind her.

She stared after the now empty space, and then uneasily shrugged it off before making her way to get some much-needed sleep.

<> 

For once Pidge slept like a rock, her brain keeping everything shut down for a solid twelve hours. She knew it had been twelve hours because she got woken up by Hunk and Keith barging into her room, with Hunk asking why she had been asleep for, yes, twelve hours.

Once her still-sleepy mind computed what he was asking her she scowled at the both of them. “Dude, come on. We’ve slept for way longer than that back on the Castle.”

“Yeah, after a thirty-six-hour long mission. Come on, Lance woke up an hour ago.” Keith was practically jumping out of his skin, gray-violet eyes full of anxiety.

That got her attention. Pulling on a hoodie with her pajamas, she ran after the boys all the way to the medical ward. The sight of the bulletproof glass doors reminded her of what happened the previous day. Pursing her lips, Pidge braced herself for when she would tell the three of them about her talk with Lotor.

The sight of Lance propped up in bed and cheerfully munching on crackers made her grin so hard her face hurt. Keith beat her and Hunk to it and smashed into Lance as hard as he could without hurting the other Paladin, who laughed when he realized who it was.

“Keith! Hunk! My mans! And Pidge!” he cheered, raising his cup of orange juice in a toast.

“Don’t you ever do that to me _again!”_ Keith growled, not letting go of Lance. Hunk snickered.

“What, get shot? Dude, that’s like, half of our career,” Lance complained. “Give me something more reasonable to work with.”

“No.”

“You scared the shit out of us,” Pidge told him breathlessly. A huge weight lifted from her shoulders as she finally wrapped her head around Lance really being okay.

He made a face like, _What can you do._ “Yeah, Hunk told me earlier. By the way, is it true that you unlocked a new upgrade on your bayard during the Garrison fight? Keith told me it was a big-ass battle axe!”

“Uh-huh. Pretty awesome, right?” Hunk preened.

“Awesome? How about _legendary_ , you savage! I want a battle axe too!”

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Lance, your arms are literally twigs. Stick with the blasters until you start lifting, okay?”

 _“Excuse_ me? I’ll have you know I can squat one-seventy-five!”

“That’s nice, buddy.” Hunk patted Lance’s head, who faked a pout before looking around the medical ward.

“When’s Allura stopping by? Is she okay?”

“Allura’s helping Shiro navigate us through this solar wind current. There’s a huge star system not too far away, so we need to make sure we go far around it so we don’t get exposed to a lot of radiation,” Keith explained. “She said she’ll be down as soon as she can.”

“Cool beans.” Lance seemed satisfied and leaned back against his pillow.

Swallowing nervously, Pidge decided that now was the best time to tell them the big news, while Allura wasn’t there. Lotor hadn’t said anything about the princess, but she knew damn well he was still pissed at her. In his eyes, she was the one most responsible for everything that happened. That was unfortunate, but Pidge wasn’t about to tell him otherwise.

She sucked in a slow breath. “Sooo… I ended up having a chat with Lotor yesterday.”

Pidge might as well have slapped a toddler. Hunk, Lance, and Keith whipped around to stare at her with wide eyes and open mouths.

 _“What?”_ Keith demanded.

“You… really?” Hunk asked softly.

Lance just blinked in utter confoundment. “What… what did he say?”

Unable to meet the intensity of their gazes, Pidge looked away, trying to come up with the proper words to describe everything. Not a single thing she thought of seemed even remotely adequate, but the boys’ expressions were nothing short of desperate, and so she gave it her best shot.

“He said… he’s not angry with us. At all, because we were scared and we’re… we’re just kids. We didn’t know how to react to Romelle’s accusations, or what to do when he went crazy because of the quintessence overload. He doesn’t…” She took a shaking breath. “He doesn’t blame us for any of it.”

Dead silence.

Keith, Hunk, and Lance wore matching masks of bewilderment, and as she watched they all turned to looks of pure shock.

Nobody spoke for at least a minute. Pidge stared off into empty space. Just outside of Lance’s room, the usual hustle and bustle of the medical ward carried on, untouched by their conversation. One of the Garrison officers who had been injured in the fight snorted in her sleep and rolled over in her cot. A pair of nurses worked on removing some stitches from a cadet, judging by his repeated gasps of discomfort.

It was Lance who broke the silence. His face screwed up, squeezing his eyes shut before staring down at his lap. Blue eyes shone with tears. “You know, it would have been easier if he just told us all that he hated us.”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

Hunk sniffed and buried his face in his sleeve.

“Do you know what room he’s in?” Keith asked, pushing his chair back.

“Uh, no, but I bet we could ask?” she replied, confused.

“Cool. Let’s go see him.”

Lance scrunched up his nose as determination replaced his sorrow, and he moved his legs over to the side of his bed. With Keith on one side and Hunk on the other, the Red Paladin cautiously stood for the first time since he’d been shot.

Pidge led the way out of the room and looked around for somebody who looked like they’d be willing to help them out. By some miracle, she spotted Kayla, the nurse from earlier, at the main desk looking bored out of her mind.

She ran right up to her. “Hey, Kayla, was it? Can we see Lotor?”

Kayla made a face. “Yeaahhh… that’s kinda against the rules.”

“But we-”

“Fourth door on the left.” She smirked.

Pidge grinned at her and gestured for the boys to follow. Making sure the doctors weren’t looking, they slipped into the short hallway with the back rooms. Upon finding the fourth door from the left, she looked back at Lance, who nodded.

Nervous, she raised a tentative fist and knocked twice.

“Yes? Come in.”

She poked her head in and found Lotor resting on his bed, looking back at her over his shoulder with a face that hinted that he just woke up.

Hunk and Keith slipped in past her, followed by Lance. Upon seeing them, Lotor’s expression warmed, and he turned over to his back as Hunk slowly crept over to him.

“Hi,” he said softly.

“Hello, Hunk.”

“… We missed you. A lot.”

At that, Lotor smiled, and if Pidge’s eyes weren’t fooling her there was a bit of moisture in those sharp lashes of his.

“I know.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was literally the best to write. 
> 
> I always felt like Pidge and Lotor had the best chance for an unlikely friendship: He allows himself to be given up in exchange for her father knowing what will inevitably happen, and holds off Zarkon while the others take on his former generals. Towards the end of season 5 it shows that Pidge has totally warmed up to Lotor and trusts him, and then by season 6 she and Hunk are pretty much on a first name basis with him. Plus, one of my favorite Voltron headcanons is that Lotor adores kids and secretly wants some of his own one day, and he kind of sees Pidge as a substitute for that. 
> 
> So yeah, enjoy this totally self-indulgent filler chapter of fluffy shit! I'll try and have the next chapter up by next weekend.


	16. The Prisoner's Dilemma, Part One

“- and after you pass by that red giant over there you’ll want to hang a left,” Coran was telling Shiro as the Atlas slowly headed out of the Milky Way. “But not too far left! Then go ahead and pull up. No need to take the long way out of this galaxy. Ancients, this place is _huge!”_

Allura watched in faint amusement as Shiro did his best to translate Coran’s “directions” to piloting orders, which he gave to Curtis and the other six humans in the cockpit. Lance’s sister, Veronica, kept making eye contact with Adam and then both of them snickering whenever Coran said something particularly funny. She supposed it was how humans bonded over humorous situations. Despite living with five of them back on the Castle of Lions, there seemed to be an ever-growing list of behaviors that confused the quiznak right out of her.

Their first stop would be Olkari, the capital of the Voltron Coalition. If they desired even the slightest chance at defeating Honerva they would need all the help they could get. After they (hopefully) succeeded in gathering allies, Voltron’s next objective would be finding the factions the Galran Empire had split into and doing everything they could to help bring them back together. Once they had done everything they could for the Galra, it would be onwards to Pollux and the other Altean colonies to defeat Honerva once and for all.

That was the plan, anyway.

“Don’t forget to watch for radiation bursts. Dying stars are unpredictable,” she called over as Shiro angled the Atlas between a pair of stars just a few light-years apart.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” he grumbled. Allura chuckled. From the chair next to Curtis, Romelle muffled a laugh into the crook of her elbow. Another navigator by the name of Teresa offered her a granola bar, which Romelle accepted graciously and asked what kind of food it was.

Seeing as there was nothing else for her to do, she quietly slipped off the edge of the control panel and made her way out the doors. A chorus of squeaks sounded as the mice bounded around her feet, caught up in some conversation she couldn’t make out despite their bond.  

Chulatt squeaked up at her, sending little pinpricks of urgency across their psychic connection. On his right, Chuchule snorted and tossed his little head.

“You have something to show me? I was going to go find the other Paladins when I was done in there,” Allura asked.

Platt blinked up at her assuredly.

“Something about the Paladins?”

He nodded and bounded off, the others right behind him. Following close behind, she was led down several corridors; they were taking her to the medical ward, she realized.

Since it was approaching the end of the day, many of the doctors had already gone back to their own rooms or attend to other duties. She was pleased to note that the Garrison officers who had been injured were recovering well, with the population of the ward significantly reduced since she had last seen it. The overhead lights were dimmed or turned off. The main desk was vacant and cleared of all paperwork.

Keeping quiet, she padded after the mice as they scampered to the back rooms. They brought her to the fourth door from the left, which had been left slightly ajar.

Curious, she peeked inside, and what she saw made the air leave her lungs.

Lotor and the Paladins were all piled on the former emperor’s bed together, with Lotor curled protectively around Pidge and Lance. Hunk snored behind him with one arm draped over his side. Keith was balled up against Lotor’s legs, pillowing his head against the crook of one knee. The sight brought back so many memories of their time together building Sincline, memories as sacred to her as the Ancients themselves, blurring together in blushing cheeks and stolen doboshes in hidden rooms and laughter.

Her vision blurred and Allura quickly reached up and wiped away the excess liquid from her eyes. A thickness in her throat made her swallow, weighed down with heavy emotion.

Lotor shifted and Allura suddenly found herself staring into bleary Galran eyes. He tensed, and then his pupils slit despite the darkness of the room. Tall ears flattened back against his skull.

In that moment, she finally understood the weariness in the bags beneath Keith’s eyes, the ready fist Hunk clenched even in his sleep. It was in the scar on Pidge’s neck, the ribs that showed from Lance’s side even through his shirt. Decaphoebs together had finally caught up to the princess as the pieces finally clicked together.

_Child soldiers, but children no longer._

She didn’t move or speak.

“… It was never their fault.”

His voice was the lowest of whispers. In her sleep, Pidge made a tiny sound and burrowed closed to Lotor.

“Yes,” Allura got out. Her breath shook as it left her parted lips. “I know.”

Lotor blinked slowly before looking away, ten thousand years coming back to shadow the beautiful blue of his eyes. Beneath her, Allura heard the quiet tickle of miniscule claws over tile as the mice slunk away from the scene, leaving her alone with Lotor and the sleeping human children. She exhaled as she felt exhaustion begin to bear down on her as well.

The sheets rustled as Lotor let himself fall back against his pillow. Heavy eyelids began to close, and Allura took that as her cue to leave. She took one hesitant step back to the door, and then another, before turning away at last from the peaceful scene to exit the room.

“Princess.”

Her head quickly turned towards Lotor, almost of its own accord. “Y-Yes?”

“Tomorrow I ask that we confer in regards to addressing the remnants of the Galran Empire. They still believe me dead and will not take my sudden reappearance lightly.”

For the first time, a tiny ray of hope dared to peek its way into her heart.

“A wise plan. Rest well, Lotor,” she murmured.

 He did not respond other than to relax fully into his bed, but the hostility faded from those tired eyes as he fell back asleep.

Allura smiled, and she left.

Chulatt cooed up at her as she and the rest of the mice emerged into the outside corridor. They had remained by her side the last few days as the overwhelming guilt of what happened to Lotor crushed her spirit, and for that she would be forever grateful. Bedridden and wretched as she had been, all of the mice refused to depart from her room, even going so far as to steal her food from the Garrison’s kitchen. Truly, she could not ask for better companions, even if they did sometimes nip her fingers and make scat on her sheets.

“Perhaps all is not lost after all between him and I.” Allura smiled as Plachu chittered encouragingly up at her, before Chulatt began nipping at the toes of her boots. “Oh, alright, _alright._ Time for bed, then.”

<> 

Towards the end of the ship’s designated day-night cycle (as mandated by the humans), Allura found herself being yanked out of a dead sleep by Coran.

“Pirates,” he hissed.

She was on her feet and stumbling towards her armor before her brain even computed what he had told her. Coran darted out the door to go help Shiro pilot the Atlas. Out in the hallway, the piercing shriek of the sirens started up, quickly accompanied by the flashing red light installed on the wall across from her bed. A quick check confirmed that it was three-sixteen in the morning, according to the display inside her helmet right under the one that showed Altean time.

The humans would _not_ be happy about this.

Allura sprinted the whole way to the cockpit with her helmet tucked under one arm and her bayard in the other hand. The doors slid open for her upon her approach, and she strode in to see what the situation was.

“-keep the shields up until I say otherwise. Curtis, Veronica, see if you can contact any of the ships. Oh, hi, Allura,” Shiro greeted as she hopped up next to him.

She stared at the small army of vessels before them, one-hundred and fifty at least. “Good morning, Shiro. Do we have any idea what they want?”

Coran huffed from where he stood next to Adam. “They’re pirates, Princess! These lovely fellows are the infamous Delarvian Skullpiercers. That’s the closest translation to English, anyways. It speaks for itself.”

“They approached the Atlas at three-ten this morning, and launched a thirty-second assault at three-twelve,” Adam reported, tapping away furiously at a tablet he was holding. “Takashi, I’m getting reports from Sam and the other engineers that we’ve sustained damage to the second engine. There’s minimal denting on the starboard flank as well.”

The doors whisked open again, and Lance, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge all scrambled in with wide eyes, looking like they all just woke up as well. The navigators at the controls were all present, as well as a wide-eyed Romelle. Her pale fists were clutched in her lap, and with a pang of pity Allura remembered how unused to combat the girl still was.

“Man, the nerve of these jackasses,” Keith growled, running his hands through thick black hair. Pidge grunted in agreement and glared out the window at the pirates.

“Should we get to the Lions?” Hunk yawned.

Shiro shook his head. “If they make any more hostile movements we’ll open fire and hopefully be done with it.”

Lance yawned as well and scratched his arse. “Cool.”

Allura rolled her eyes, part of her hoping the pirates would do something so they could just defeat them and go back to bed.

Unfortunately, her wish came true when the bigger ship in front started approaching them, cannons open and trained on the Atlas. The Paladins narrowed their eyes. Adam and the other crew members stiffened.

Shiro raised his hand to give the signal to shoot, but before he could complete the order a sharp command came from the back of the cockpit. “Wait!”

Allura whipped around in surprise, hardly daring to believe her ears. With a yelp, a startled Romelle fell out of her chair.

Still worn out but looking so much better, Lotor marched over to Shiro, calm authority radiating off him like light from a star. “Captain Shirogane, these are Delarvian raiders. A short attack is simply how they greet other parties.”

“Oh, I know who these scoundrels are!” Coran agreed. “Their entire culture is based around war. You can’t trust them farther than you can throw one!”

“Shall we open up our communications and talk like civilized adults, then? Or will we attack them without a thought as well?” Lotor asked icily.

Allura felt like she’d been punched. The Paladins went stone-still. Coran flinched. From her seat, Romelle glared up at the tall man with fierce distrust.

There were several ticks of cold silence.

Wearily, Shiro nodded. “Lotor’s right. Veronica, open up the comms.”

“Yessir!” A little frantically, Veronica messed around on her computer to do as Shiro said. Almost immediately a notification appeared on the main display.

 

 

INCOMING CALL FROM - _ UNKNOWN56-09

 

5:34            3:19 AM

 

 

“That would be them,” Lotor said.

Shiro accepted the call. “Greetings, this is the Atlas responding to your call. I am Captain Shirogane, what business-?”

 _“Yarrghh! At last, a call back! Me grandmother is better at returnin’ calls than you lot!”_ a gruff voice cackled. _“I was beginnin’ to think me crew didn’t wake anybody up!”_

“Uhh… okay?”

A rasping series of coughs. Allura felt herself make a face. _“You rascals are in me territory now, mate. I thought I’d let you all know before we did anything drastic!”_

“Like attack my ship?” Shiro asked dryly.

 _“Blarg, don’t get smart with me, Captain Shitty-gane! Me n’ my mates were gonna loot yer ship for everythin’ it was worse, but then I remembered nobody got nothin’ nowadays anyway. Didn’t think I’d miss the Galra Empire as much as I do now, but boy did they make life easier!”_ the pirate groaned wistfully. _“That Emperor Lotor was a real one, freeing all pirate prisoners once he took over. I’d give my other leg to have him back on top!”_

The other Paladins looked like they were dying inside. Lotor quirked a brow, the amused glint in his eyes a clear indicator that he was flattered.

Shiro winced. “Uh, yeah. For real. Anything else you wanted to discuss…?”

_“Nah. Just wanted to let y’all know we’re going to be escorting you out me little corner of the universe. You’ll be out of here in eleven jun-lits!”_

“Jun-lits?” the former Black Paladin hissed to Lotor.

“About thirteen-and-a-half Earth hours,” Lotor murmured.

“Thanks.” To the pirate captain, Shiro said, “Agreed. We’ll follow you there.”

_“Copy that, ye trespassin’ bastard! Over and out!”_

Shiro flicked down the switch to the call and ended it. For several ticks, they all just stood there in bewilderment at the exchange.

“How do we know they’re not leading us into a trap?” Lance finally asked.

“We can take ‘em with the Atlas and Voltron,” Hunk assured him. “Besides, they just think we’re some cargo ship or something. They have no reason to think we’re anybody of value.”

The Red Paladin nodded, liking that answer. “You’re right.”

“Veronica, Curtis, scan as far as you can for anything suspicious,” Shiro ordered. “Just in case.”

The two navigators went to work as Shiro adjusted the course of the Atlas to follow the pirate ships. Pidge and Hunk trotted over to Lotor and started asking him about the Delarvian Skullpiercers. Lance and Keith immediately followed the inseparable pair, and Lotor gave Lance a fond pat on his shoulder as the strange-looking group ambled over to the empty chairs at the controls to talk.

As wonderful as it was to see them getting along like lifelong friends, the exclusion at her expense hurt so much it was physically painful. She longed _desperately_ to join them. But it was not yet meant to be, that Allura knew as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, for as she did so Lotor flicked his gaze to her in a fashion that made no secret of his wariness. He continually tracked her movements as one would a nearby enemy on the battlefield.

It was too much for her to take.

As quietly and casually as possible, she slipped back out of the room.

The guilt and shame came crashing back down upon her the moment the cockpit doors slid shut. The shards of glass in her heart twisted ever deeper, encouraging the lump in her throat to ache like an open wound. When she unconsciously raised a hand to wipe away the hot liquid that had gathered at the corner of one eye, a tear instantly fell from the other as if mocking her attempt at keeping her composure.

In that moment, Allura knew she would have given anything to be able to hold him close.

 _How am I going to fix this?_ she pleaded to the stars out the viewing window she stumbled upon. When they yielded her no answer, she turned away, forcing herself to take a deep breath.

“Allura?”

Nearly jumping out of her skin, she whipped around to see Romelle. _Ancients,_ she hadn’t even heard the girl coming.

“Oh, hello, Romelle. Is everything alright up there?” She tried for a winning smile but judging by the narrowing of lavender eyes on the girl’s face, she wasn’t fooling anybody.

“I don’t like how he keeps hurting you.”

The sentence dropped between them like a stone being thrown into a smooth-surfaced pond. It took a bit for the words to register fully in Allura’s mind, but when they did, she couldn’t help but scowl at the blonde in the doorway.

“He has every right to be furious with me. It’s what I deserve for betraying him like that,” she snapped. “Besides, the Paladins deserve to have a good friend like Lotor.”

Romelle crossed her arms. “If he forgave them so easily, why not you?”

“Because it is I that should have known better! I am the Princess of Altea, a diplomat, the pilot of the Blue Lion. If anybody should have kept their cool back in the Castle, it should have been me. There is no excuse for how I let everything get out of control.” Allura turned away from her, not wanting to look at Romelle.

A small, spiteful part of the princess resented her for everything she had caused, intentional or not. If Romelle had never shown up, she would still have Lotor.

She banished the tiny shards of blame from her consciousness. “Besides, you have no right to cast shadows upon his name the way you do now. He saved your life when the Galaxy Garrison turned on us.”

Allura felt more than saw Romelle flinch. “… I am hesitant to see how that changes anything.”

“Then be blind.” She was done with this conversation. Not meeting the younger girl’s gaze as she swept from the room, she let her anger and frustration at the hand the universe had dealt her turn to determination. “If you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to.”

As it turned out, she didn’t end up finding Lotor until another varga had passed. He was actually holding some sort of meeting in a conference room on the eighth floor, using the board like a human professor would. On it were several sketches of layouts the Galra bases used, to which the Garrison officers copied down in their own notebooks and asked questions about to Lotor.

It was probably one of the most charming things she’d ever seen in her life.

He noticed her lingering in the doorway after less than a couple of ticks and dipped his chin in respect. “Princess Allura.”

The greeting was stiff and incredibly formal.

She bowed in response, hopefully conveying her submission to him. “Emperor Lotor, forgive me for interrupting. The matter at hand can be put on hold until the end of your meeting.”

“No, the fault is mine. I had entirely forgotten about needing to speak with you.” He met her gaze even as she saw all his walls come up to protect himself from her.

The glass shards in her breast writhed like maggots.

“Shall we postpone?”

She was entirely too aware of the Garrison officers tracking the conversation with eyes that bounced back and forth like a ball in their human game of Ping-Pong. Colleen Holt sipped her coffee and watched Allura with a raised brow, not judgmental, just curious to see what the princess would do.

“That… won’t be necessary. You are all dismissed,” Lotor said, addressing the officers before picking up an eraser and cleaning the board with it.

Allura stepped aside to let the crew members pass by on their way out the door. As she expected, Colleen Holt gave her a look that clearly said, _good luck._

When it was just her and Lotor in the room, she ambled over to the front desk, where several sheets of paper with notes on it laid strewn about. A smile finally made its way to her face. “Quite the enthusiastic class you have. Coran might have issues with you being the new favorite of the humans.”

Lotor narrowed his eyes in faint amusement. “Whoever our fellow crew members decide to pack-bond with the most is not my decision. Interesting creatures, are they not?”

“Indeed. And yet, I cannot imagine a race more suited for the duties of Voltron Paladins,” Allura mused quietly.

“A fair conclusion.”

Heaving a tired breath, he lowered himself into a chair. A flicker of pain crossed his features as he did so.

Allura noted his abandoned cane leaning against the adjacent wall. “The nurse Kayla might have your head if she knew you weren’t using your cane.”

“I’ll be fine.” He didn’t look at her. “Back to the subject of Voltron, how is the search for potential candidates for the position of Black Paladin?”

She sighed. “Pidge and Hunk seem to have taken over that. Pidge said that Veronica McClain might be a good fit. Hunk currently advocates for Ryan Kinkade. None of the senior officers have said anything yet but I’ve seen the way they look at the Black Lion.”

“Hm.”

“Have you any ideas, then?”

“… One young fellow in particular has always stood out to me.”

She waited for him to elaborate, but he just turned away to pull some folders out of his pilot’s jacket. “But I digress. I must admit, Princess, that I do not know what to do with myself when it comes to the Galran Empire. If by some miracle I could broadcast a message to every outpost and hideout in this little corner of our universe there is no telling how they would respond. Many of them will hate me. Some might not care at all that I lived.”

“The Olkari have the technology to send a message of that magnitude,” Allura assured him.

Lotor’s shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. “That’s good. But that does not fix the rest of our unfortunate… situation.”

“I know. But perhaps reaching out to all of them is not the best way to go about this.”

“Are you saying I should not make contact?” He turned to face her, brows pressed together in confusion. “We will need all the resources we can to defeat the witch.”

“We do,” she agreed. “What I suggest instead is starting with the groups that are friendly. Explain what happened to them, and then we can take it from there.”

“Will we even have enough time before we reach Pollux?” Lotor asked.

“We will,” she promised, determination flooding her veins like fire.

“Then I will message Kolivan immediately to see if he and his soldiers can start deploying.” Bracing himself, Lotor used the table for support as he rose unsteadily.

Allura saw the exact moment his left knee gave out. The emperor went down with a gasp, but she was at his side before he could fall, supporting most of his weight as Lotor dug thorn-sharp claws into her shoulders.

They stood there like that for half a dobosh or so, Lotor breathing heavily and her biceps stinging. She was very, very aware of every spot where they touched, all along his side and her shoulders and hair.

“… We need to get you back to the medical ward,” she finally told him.

“There… there isn’t much they can do for me now.”

Something about that sentence chilled Allura to the bone. “Wh-What?”

“… Please, if we could sit for a couple of doboshes.”

Carefully, she lowered him back to his chair before grabbing his cane and leaning it against the table in case he wanted it. Then, hesitantly, with her heart beginning to pound harder and harder, she chose a chair of her own and sat down.

“Princess, whatever happens to me, you must _never_ let the Empire obtain unlimited quintessence like how we originally planned. How I ended up reacting to it, what it did to me in the rift… it is not _life._ It will not bring us to salvation and prosperity. I… I now believe that it wasn’t just me that went mad during our battle,” he told her in hushed, nearly frantic tones.

“What?”

“Don’t you see? We came back from the rift, the true source of unlimited, pure quintessence and straight to the others. We were both _soaked_ in it. I theorize that, in a way, our bodies essentially became radioactive. The Paladins were contaminated. So was Romelle and Coran and Krolia. And because of the nature of my mother’s pregnancy and birth, I was the most vulnerable to it.”

Allura froze. Pieces began to fall together, one by one, at last leaving her with the awful understanding of what was the most likely explanation for the terrible things she had done. “Oh, Ancients. Lotor, we’re not just in danger from Haggar trying to conquer our reality. If she succeeds, she’ll literally _destroy i_ t with quintessence.”

“It was never meant to come into our universe as we know it,” he agreed sadly. “And because of the unpredictable nature of the rift there’s no telling what would happen if the witch tears it open for her devices. It might even bleed out into other realities and kill them as well.”

 _“Shit.”_ The human-English swear escaped her lips in a rush of breath. “Oh, Life-Givers, help us all.”

Lotor shook his head. “I will play my part in this for as long as I possibly can. Most likely, it is you and the others who must ensure that something like this never happens again.”

“… How do you mean? Lotor, you sound as if…”

“Kayla found the tumors just yesterday. The witch did a good job in draining most of that damned energy out, but whatever was left became unstable, probably from the komar. I’m doing everything I can to stay strong and fight through it, but…”

He trailed off, slumping back in his chair as the confession poisoned the room.

Allura couldn’t comprehend what he just told her, not until they locked gazes and she saw the truth in his tired eyes.

“… No. No, Lotor, you…” The world tilted around her as if her spirit was trying to detach from its physical vessel.

“You mustn’t tell a soul. Especially not the Paladins. They have enough on their shoulders as it is,” Lotor ordered softly.

She listed forward in her seat before correcting herself. “I did this to you.”

“Allura-”

Finally, she pushed herself out of her chair, took one of his hands, and went down on one knee.

“Lotor, I will never ask for your forgiveness for all that I have done. I don’t deserve it. But you must know how much I regret my actions, how I had to learn that all our lives will never be the same because of my hidden hatred. No matter where this final journey takes us, no matter what the stars throw our way, I will stand by your side until the end. That, I can promise you.”

She felt his hands close around hers, firm and warm. Then, he was on the floor with her and holding her close as the rest of the universe fell away at last.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To confirm your fears, yes, Lotor has cancer. The quintessence rift messed him up on a whole lot of different levels, and as far as the doctors and Allura are concerned it's unlikely he'll live. 
> 
> Thanks for waiting again, guys. Next chapter we'll get right down to the nitty-gritty.


	17. The Prisoner's Dilemma, Part Two

The pirates kicked them out of their territory without much fanfare early the next “morning”. Hunk hoped he’d get to see them again; they’d make good allies if they actually liked Lotor as much as they claimed they did. He was glad the Galran had snapped at them to stand down, even if the reminder of their injustice hurt.

 _I need to ask him for pointers on how to be a better diplomat,_ he mused.

 From Shiro and Pidge’s calculations, it would be another month or so before they reached Olkarion. He missed the Castle of Lions’ handy-dandy wormhole function dearly, but Allura didn’t know if the Atlas had the integrity to withstand an attempt if she tried to harness the crystal.

He reminded himself to talk to the Olkari about that as he munched down on eggs and sausage. Across from him, Lance and Keith hunched close together as they ran down a list of names on the notepad before them.

Veronica McClain had been the first to enter the Black Lion in hopes she would be chosen for their new Paladin. For nearly half an hour she had sat in the cockpit, quietly talking to the mechanical beast about everything and everything before leaving.

“That was weird. I felt, like, a presence, almost? In my head,” she had told him and Lance.

“What did it feel like?” Lance asked.

“I think they were laughing at me. But in a good way,” Veronica assured him, reaching up to pat one of Black’s massive claws. “You know something I don’t, huh? That’s okay. I’m patient.”

The Black Lion’s refusal of Veronica had put Keith in a sour mood. Now that the Blade was free of his Paladin duties he was sleeping a lot better and was a lot less strung out, Hunk could tell, but Keith had it stuck in his head that he was the one primarily responsible for finding a new Black Paladin, like it was all his fault or something.

“I don’t understand. Veronica would have made a _perfect_ Black Paladin. It’s like Black is _trying_ to give us gray hair!” Keith snarled in exasperation.

“Yeah! What, my sister not good enough for you, jackass?” Lance complained in the general direction of the Lions’ hangar.

“I’m gonna spray-paint a dick on Black’s muzzle.”

“Oh my God, that’s legendary. If you actually do it take a picture for me.”

Hunk snorted at his friends’ antics. “You guys are doing great. I know Voltron’s important, but don’t forget we have the Atlas now as well. Don’t feel like you have to sacrifice even more sleep than you already do over this.”

Lance finally cracked a smile. “Aw, thanks man. Did you hear that, Keith?”

“Mmph.”

“I’m taking that as a yes.”

Keith let out a sigh. “The sooner we find a new Black Paladin, the better off we’ll be against Honerva.” His voice dropped to a low murmur towards the end of his sentence, looking around as if making sure Lotor wasn’t in earshot. Hunk leaned in to hear him better. “I feel like we’re missing something. It’s like Veronica said; they know something we don’t.”

“We just need to keep trying,” Lance said encouragingly, slinging an arm over Keith’s shoulders. He frowned, paused, and then patted curiously at the other boy’s back. “Shit, dude, you feel like a brick wall. Did you and Krolia just work out the whole time you were traveling back to us?”

“Lance!” Keith complained.

Lance raised in a hand in a placating gesture. “Just trying to lighten the mood. Tell you what: I’ll go get some breakfast for us while you take a breather. Hunk, make sure this sad sack gets out of his seat and moves around a little.”

“Yes sir!” Hunk saluted, to which Lance playfully reciprocated and trotted out of the lounge.

Keith reluctantly dragged himself out of his seat and stood with a wince, spine cracking in several places like a handful of firecrackers. “Ugh. Let’s go to the bridge for a bit, see if Shiro and Adam have anything interesting.”

“That’s legit.”

They ambled along side by side, hands in pockets and knocking shoulders every minute or so. Garrison officers bustled about as they went through their morning routines. Slowly, but surely, the Atlas was settling into a rhythm.

“So…” Keith leaned in closer. “Lance and Allura, huh?”

Hunk blinked, and then laughed. _I am so telling Pidge about this._ “Nah, bro. They went on a date and then decided they were just gonna be friends. Besides, Allura is still one-hundred percent goofy for Lotor, and I know Lotor feels the same way whether he admits it or not.”

He practically sniggered with glee when he spotted the glint of relief in Keith’s eyes. “Oh.”

Quickly schooling his expression, he twisted his neck to crack it and relieve some of the stress-pressure that had built up there. “Yeah, I’m glad they finally figured that whole mess out.”

He didn’t tease Keith about Lance just yet, not when he was still healing from the mental damage being the Black Paladin did to him. Keith needed time to rest and regroup before Hunk started pushing him about any potential feelings.

Upon entering the control room, they were greeted by the sight and sound of a whole lot of nothing.

Somehow, that was even worse than having something be wrong.

“Shiro? What’s going on?” Keith asked, striding up to the captain’s platform.

Shiro didn’t look back at him, didn’t even greet him. “That’s the thing, Keith. It’s _nothing._ Everybody’s gone.”

“What?”

“Look.”

The captain brought up a big 3-D display of the sector they were currently in. They had spent a lot of time making those maps back on the Castle of Lions, one solar system at a time.

Reaching out for one planet, Shiro brought up its information.

“Population: zero?” Hunk spluttered. “What, did they all go on vacation or something? Please tell me they all just went on vacation.”

“There’s no sign of widespread damage a Galran attack would inflict on a world. Two hours ago we went by a fleet of starships and they were empty as well. They looked like they had been abandoned for years, and so does this planet,” Shiro explained.

“Are all of them like that?”

“In this sector, yes.”

Shiro opened the profiles on all of the other planets in the sector for them to see, and sure enough.

“I bet Honerva has something to do with it,” Keith spat.

There’s a short pause where none of them speaks, but Hunk knew they were all thinking the same thing.

“You can ride with me in Yellow,” he told Keith.

Keith nodded. “I’ll call the others.”

“We’ll be in orbit!” Shiro called after them as they raced out of the bridge. “Comm us if there’s any trouble!”

 _Okay, Dad,_ Hunk thought wryly, already making a beeline for his room.

He had perfected the fine art of putting on his Paladin suit so that it took all but forty seconds, but it was still another few minutes before he made it to the Lions’ hangar. A small crowd of officers watched from the windows, obviously eager to see the huge mechs in action again, something that made Hunk’s chest warm with pride. Veronica and the MFE pilots waved to him, to which he enthusiastically returned the gesture.

When he saw the look on Lance’s face, however, that brief thrill fell away like a brick.

“Lance?”

The color was completely gone from the other boy’s face as he gestured wildly to the Red Lion. “Sh-She won’t open for me, Hunk.”

_“What?!”_

The thundering of footsteps coming toward them signaled the arrival of Pidge, Keith, and Allura.

“We’re down another Lion,” Hunk relayed shakily.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Pidge said. “Can we go _one_ day without some kind of Lion drama?”

Lance didn’t bother with their exchange. Looking completely defeated, he trudged up to Red and rested his forehead against one of her claws. “Hey. Why did you block me out, babe? C’mon, talk to me, _please._ I-I don’t want to lose you like I did with Blue!”

Red did nothing.

“Oh, Lance, I am sorry,” Allura whispered.

 _“Paladins, what’s going on?”_ Shiro’s voice came in through Hunk’s helmet, worried.

“Red kicked out Lance,” Keith growled. “Unbelievable.”

Squaring up, he marched over to the Red Lion and knocked three times against her paw. “Hel- _lo?_ Anyone there? Please open the hell up!”

A beat of silence, and then-

Hunk was blown back on his ass by the force of the fire guardian’s roar. Red rose to all fours, eyes blazing like twin suns in the heart of a cosmic storm. Behind the window two levels up, the Garrison officers scrambled back in alarm from the shock of Red’s awakening. It was likely people had felt that all the way on the other end of the Atlas.

The only one who had kept his footing was Keith. Eyes wide as dinner plates, he stepped forward to rest his hand against Red’s nose as she bent down to greet him.

For a couple of seconds there was just Keith and the Red Lion, in a space that was all their own. Hunk’s heart threatened to explode at the incredible, everlasting love passing between them, a pair of lifelong friends who hadn’t known how much they missed each other.

_“-Keith? Keith! What’s going on over there?”_

In his dazed state, Hunk didn’t even realize Shiro had been yelling for them.

“The Red Lion,” Keith choked. “She… she’s taken me back, Shiro. I’m the Red Paladin again! Oh, Red, I’ve missed you so much!”

Said Lion was already purring loud enough to make Hunk’s teeth chatter in his skull. Pidge and Allura both cooed over the scene, with Pidge sneakily slipping her phone out to take a picture.

“We better warn Krolia she’s got competition,” Pidge joked.

“Mama Red’s got her baby back!” Hunk turned, still chuckling, to see how Lance was going to egg Keith for being such a sloppy mess in the face of affection.

What he didn’t expect to see, however, was Lance’s glassy-eyed stare as he backed away slowly from the group. He looked like he had just been struck.

“We gotta go!” Keith yelled, and joyously flung himself into Red’s mouth without so much as a backwards glance. Pidge ran to Green, cheering and whooping the whole way.

Allura made to go to Blue, but then caught sight of Lance. “Lance? Are you alright?”

Shaking off his stupor, Hunk jogged over to the former Red Paladin and put a hand on his shoulder. Lance didn’t react. “I’ve got this, Allura. Go ahead with the others.”

Allura hesitated, clearly wanting to stay, but then turned and bolted for Blue. Keith and Pidge would need her in case something went wrong.

“Hey, buddy. Talk to me,” Hunk urged. He shook Lance’s shoulder a little, worry growing with every passing second. “Lance?”

Finally, Lance blinked several times. “Well, that’s good, right? Keith… deserves to be the Red Paladin again. This is good.”

“Lance, you’re still a part of Voltron. You’re still one of us,” Hunk insisted. “Come on, you can ride with me in Yellow. We need you.”

That got his attention. As if he was snapping out of a trance, Lance ran alongside Hunk and scrambled into Yellow’s cockpit, smashing himself down in the back seat as far as he could go. The Lion roared to life, Hunk’s connection to Yellow flaring in the back of his mind like sunshine. He was warm and big and safe. Man, he frickin’ _loved_ Yellow.

Guiding Yellow around the Atlas, he spotted the Green and Blue Lions already entering the upper atmosphere of the planet closest to them. Red wasn’t anywhere to be seen, which had him worrying for a second before Yellow chuffed in amusement in the back of his brain and sent him a blur of absolute euphoria coming from Keith and his Lion. They were already way ahead of the others and having the time of their lives, diving and flipping around as they made their way to the surface.

His cheeks began to ache, and Hunk realized he’d been smiling without knowing it.

A soft shuffling noise broke him from his thoughts, and he glanced behind him to see Lance curled up in his seat, knees to his chest and eyes focused on empty space.

Guilt made Hunk’s stomach squirm; he’d completely forgotten about how his best friend was feeling. Once he was sure Yellow was in a stable dive he turned and looked back to Lance again. “Hey, dude.”

Lance didn’t meet his gaze. “Hey.”

“You gonna be okay?”

“… I… yeah. Of course. I, it’s just… I thought I finally found my gig, I guess? I was supposed to be the Red Paladin. Second-in-command. Y’know, hold down the fort while Keith goes off to do bigger and better things.” He shrugged.

“You don’t have to hold the fort down for anybody, Lance,” Hunk protested.

“Unfortunately, that’s…” Lance’s jaw clenched, and he turned away and squeezed his eyes shut. Hunk prepared to chuck some tissues over if he started crying, but instead he was nearly knocked out of his seat by the force of Lance’s anger surging through Yellow’s connection.

It was white-hot and cut deeper than any blade. Hunk couldn’t put a good description to it if he tried, but the only thing he could come up with at the time was how _old_ it felt. This type of resentment aged and shredded at his being like a spiritual cheese grater. It reminded him of his time being bullied in school, but even that felt pale in comparison, as if even several lifetimes of being mocked for his size wouldn’t be enough to add up to this.

The emotional transfer lasted for maybe a couple of seconds, but it was more than enough to scare Hunk shitless.

When he came to Lance was staring at him in concern. “Uh, Hunk? Buddy? You good?”

“Am _I_ good?” He managed, shocked. “Lance, we need to talk. How long have you been feeling like this?”

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me! Yellow showed me how angry you are in my head!”

Lance reeled back, indignant, before muttering something about snitches getting stiches. Before Hunk could demand more answers from him, however, Yellow shuddered and began to slow, bringing the Paladins’ attention to the ground slowly rising up to meet them. Hunk brought the Lion up and leveled out and found the others on his radar, all heading towards a large city that must have once been a capital of some sort. His database told him there should have been a population of about seven-hundred thousand. His scanners told him that nobody was home.

“Lance, come on. We already know what we’re going to find here. Talk to me,” Hunk pleaded, shaken by this sudden turn of events.

“We all have problems, dude! I don’t see what the big deal is!”

 _Okay, good, he’s getting pissed. Now we’re getting somewhere._ “Yeah, we do have problems, but you’ve already helped us with them. A lot! You’ve helped me, you’ve helped Shiro, you’ve helped Pidge and Keith and Allura. Hell, you’ve helped _Lotor,_ and up until a few months ago you hated the guy.”

“I never hated Lotor, I was just… jealous. But that’s water under the highway,” Lance insisted.

“You mean water under the bridge?”

“Highway, bridge,” he muttered.

Hunk groaned. _“Lance.”_

“Ugh! Just… look, we’re on a mission. I really appreciate what you’re trying to do for me, but it’s gonna have to wait until later. Look, Allura found something.” The former Red Paladin pointed to something outside.

Hunk followed his finger to the Blue Lion hovering over what looked like an old courtyard, or the alien equivalent of. Pidge and Keith zoomed over to see what was up, the Lions’ tails lashing apprehensively. In their connection, he felt Yellow snarl.

_What is it?_

He didn’t expect Yellow to actually respond; he almost never did, preferring to leave Hunk to figure shit out like every other mere mortal did. But the low, outraged growling and hissing ricocheting around his entire body spoke volumes about what the Lion thought about Allura’s and Blue’s discovery. Even as they watched, the other Lions backed away and fanned out in a loose circle around the target.

Trying to urge Yellow closer to the courtyard yielded no results. Somehow, Hunk understood that this was the one thing his buddy couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do. He took his hands off the controls and let Yellow land in a street about a block or so away.

Lance peeked over his shoulder with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

“Yellow’s not happy about whatever the others are looking at.” Hunk unbuckled and headed for the doors, Lance right behind him. He wasn’t going to kid himself; he was worried as hell as to why the Yellow Lion didn’t want to get closer.

The answer came in silence when he and Lance dropped down to the mouth. Normally Yellow opened right up for him no matter what kind of mission they were on, but now, all that greeted him and Lance was quiet darkness.

Hunk swallowed. _Um, buddy? I know you don’t like this, but we gotta go see what’s up._

Yellow rumbled again, this time with a whine edging the deep notes.

_Yeah, I know. We won’t be gone long._

A frantic croon, whispery and wavering.

_Look, I’m scared too, but-_

At that thought, he froze. Wait, that was supposed to be impossible. The Lions could be concerned, or apprehensive, or annoyed, even. But this?

The Yellow Lion was _scared._ Oh, God, why was he scared?

Before he could process anything else, or even take a step back, piercing, ashy light flooded the mouth as Yellow opened his huge jaws. Lance hesitated, and then strode down the ramp and hopped out into the dirt. Watching him go felt like torture, but so did staying there alone, and so Hunk scooted on down after his friend.

They jogged for about a minute until they reached the courtyard, where the others already were. Pidge was hunched close to a large hole in the ground, fiddling with her laptop, with Keith hovering nervously a few feet behind her and Allura staring into the hole with wide eyes.

The moment he got a better look at the hole he immediately understood what the fuss was about.

It wasn’t _right._

For one, Hunk figured out it wasn’t even a hole. The space where tile should have been was perfectly black, blacker than a black hole, than the almost-endless void between galaxies where even the most fearless races loathed to be. His hypothesis was confirmed when he took a cautious step towards it and it changed shape. As he inched closer, the thing seemed to rise, becoming more and more circular. It stood at about ten feet tall, he estimated. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t affected by physics as he knew it. The gamer in him piped up and noted the similarities between a glitch, or a gateway to another realm, or some messed up combination of the two.

His head started to hurt just from looking at it, so he looked down to an eerily motionless Pidge. “What… what is this?”

She was still for a moment longer, and Hunk worried that she hadn’t heard him, that something was horribly wrong. Then, slowly, she turned to look his way, face perfectly expressionless. Something about it made his blood run cold.

“It’s not real.”

Beside him, Lance took a tentative step closer. “What do you mean, it’s not real? I can see it right in front of me.”

But Hunk understood what Pidge was saying without further explanation. “No, Lance. Everything around it is real. That… that _thing,_ isn’t, though. It’s not part of reality.”

He forced himself to take a deep breath. “It’s nothing.”

Pidge nodded. “Literally, it’s _not real._ I’ve run every test under the sun on this thing, and every time, zilch. Zip. Nada.”

“So it’s… antimatter?” Keith offered hesitantly.

She shook her head. “No. Antimatter, while nonexistent in our reality, is still made of atoms that contain antiprotons, antineutrons, and positrons. To say that this thing is antimatter would insinuate that it still contains matter, paradoxical as it may seem.”

Lance pursed his lips. “Uh, yeah, I’m gonna pretend I understood that and get to the more important stuff: is it dangerous?”

“Technically our entire universe should have collapsed into this thing the nanosecond it appeared, so yes. At least, that’s what I think it should have done, accounting for literally everything we know about the fabric of space-time,” Pidge explained. “But I’m not picking up anything in it or coming from it, like, radiation or whatever, so…”

Allura nodded, looking a little distant as she continued to stare into the abyss. “This is the witch’s doing, there is no doubt about it. What I’m worried about is how it connects to the disappearances. The people of this planet…”

Her voice trailed off, lost in thought. Hunk couldn’t blame her, he wanted to stare at the weird not-hole until it gave him some answers as well, lure out whatever was inside, if there was indeed anything inside of not-reality.

He almost didn’t see Allura reach for it until it was too late.

_“Allura!”_

Snapping back into reality, Hunk nearly jumped out of his skin as Lance and Keith lunged forward to grab the Altean, who was now face-to-face with the unreality tear. One slender hand was extended towards it, still as stone.

Lance reached her first and grabbed her other arm to pull her back. He nearly made it, too.

A gut-wrenching shriek shattered the near silence of the courtyard. Allura yanked her hand to her chest as she stumbled back into Lance, who would have fallen over if not for Keith. The new Red Paladin helped support Allura as she clutched her fist and yelled obscenities in multiple languages. Pidge was clutching her laptop to her chest as she stumbled to her feet, eyes wide and face paler than usual.

“What happened? What happened?” Lance demanded, trying to make her open up her hand. “Why did you _do that?”_

“I don-t-! It said-!” Allura gasped for breath, looking like she had just snapped out of a trance. The front of her breastplate was already coated in red. Slowly, she uncurled her trembling hand, letting the blood ooze out of her palm and drip to the ground.

The tips of her fingers were gone.

Hunk almost vomited right there and then. Instead, he forced himself to yank out his first aid kit and grab Allura’s hand to wrap it in gauze. She didn’t even protest, just stared in bewilderment at the stains already soaking through the fabric. Lance threw her other arm around his neck while Keith all but dragged her forward to get her moving.

“Shiro, we’ve got a problem,” Pidge began, already sprinting for the Green Lion.

_“What’s wrong?”_

“Allura touched not-reality and lost some of her fingertips.”

_“What the hell? What is… just get back here!”_

Hunk heard an explosion of people talking in the background. He made out Coran, Romelle, and Lotor demanding to know what had happened to Allura, but the rest was too chaotic to decipher.

The hole of unreality loomed in the corner of his eye. His gaze automatically snapped back to it, towering over him like a mark of the ending times. For the first time since he'd encountered the thing he sensed something, something that was caged within.

And it.

Wanted.

**_Out._ **

He bolted for the Yellow Lion, Lance hot on his heels, feeling like he had just witnessed something nobody was ever meant to see.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy fuckin' shit, my dudes, thank you SO MUCH for waiting. 
> 
> Long story short, school ended, I got burnout, got fired from my job, got kind of depressed again, went to therapy, and now here I am again. I will finish this story if it kills me. 
> 
> Updating might be a little slow until I get back into the swing of things, but I WILL be posting semi-regularly again. Again, thank you all for your patience. Eat ass, smoke grass, and sled fast!


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